Verizon’s expansion of its 5G network on January 19 will not only bring increased speeds on the go. Chief technology officer Kyle Malady said in an interview Tuesday that the carrier is also expanding its coverage for home Internet, and in two weeks, coverage will reach nearly 20 million customers.
The update is an increase from the carrier’s previously mentioned plans to offer home Internet to 15 million customers by the end of 2021 with 4G LTE or millimeter-wave 5G.
Verizon’s home Internet service translates mobile network signals into Wi-Fi, allowing people to get the same high speeds on the go with their computers, TVs, and other home devices. The expansion of the carrier’s 5G service with the activation of so-called C-band frequencies on January 19 will allow more customers to access those speeds as part of home Internet service.
The wide reach of its home Internet service potentially gives millions of customers an additional — or even a first — option for broadband service some millions of Americans still don’t have access to. Verizon’s upgrade allows the company to catch up with rival T-Mobile, which is already using the same frequency of spectrum and rolled out its 5G-based home Internet service over the past year.
When connected to a 5G home, what Verizon calls its home internet service is available over 5G, the carrier says people can expect “normal” download speeds of around 300 Mbps and up to 1 gigabit per second. . These are on par with the speeds offered by wired fiber-optic Verizon Fios service.
Verizon has no data cap for its home Internet service, and taxes and fees are included in the starting price of $50 per month (with automatic payments enabled). To attract customers, the carrier is offering a host of perks including a Google Nest device, a price lock guarantee, and even a free first month of service. On Tuesday, it added a new incentive for people with its Do More, Play More or Get More wireless plans, allowing them to save 50% on the monthly cost of a 5G home when they have both services.
The perks show that Verizon is ahead in adding 5G Home customers. The service had about 150,000 customers split between consumers and businesses, Verizon executive vice president Matt Ellis said during the carrier’s third-quarter 2021 earnings call (PDF transcript).
The expanded 5G home customer base will span several of the largest cities in the country included in the C-band rollout, including Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle and Miami. Coverage will also expand to many (but not all) of the 46 Partial Economic Zones, or PEAs, that are covered by Verizon’s C-band, mmWave and 4G LTE networks.
More cities and PEAs will be added over time, although Verizon said the service would not come to areas where it already offers wired Fios high-speed internet. The carrier has not announced plans to offer its wireless Internet service to homes that are in areas with Fios but do not have access to it, as currently, there is only one market in the Niagara Falls/Buffalo, NY area with both home connectivity. provides services. ,
As with AT&T, Verizon had previously expected to flip the switch to C-band on January 5, but both agreed a last-minute deal with the Federal Aviation Administration to delay its activation by two weeks. . In that time, all parties will address concerns that the 3.7-3.8GHz frequencies used by carriers in their C-band 5G networks could interfere with aviation equipment.
Even after announcing the delay, Verizon updated its timetable to bring C-band 5G to 100 million subscribers and now says it will hit that mark when it goes live in January, up from its original target of March. planning to hit.
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