Verizon has officially announced the transition to a nationwide (United States) 5G network. However, customers may not receive the full performance of the network depending on factors such as location and tower congestion.
During their “Hi, Speed” virtual announcement, Apple brought in Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg to announce just how fast iPhone 12 and 12 Pro 5G speeds will be. Vestberg also announced that Verizon is finally making its nationwide 5G network available. But speeds don’t necessarily have to be “5G”.
According to the announcement, the company is deploying its “5G Ultra Broadband” service to 19 additional US cities and six airports. It’s built on millimeter wave 5G with admittedly blazing speeds, but with coverage due to how high the frequency is. Verizon is also launching what it calls “5G Nationwide”, which uses legacy 4G towers.
To dig a little deeper, Verizon uses a technology called “dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS)” that effectively creates 4G/5G hybrid systems. Some of the base station spectrum capacity can be shifted to 4G or 5G depending on demand. This means that some of the customers will get 4G and another percentage will get 5G. This also allows carriers like Verizon and AT&T (which uses DSS) to save some money in building new cell sites for 5G by reusing 4G towers and technology.
The company has completed its goal of lighting 35 cities with millimeter wave 5G by mid-2020. Today’s announcement raises the number to 54 cities. However, getting these gigabit download speeds still depends on location and even in which direction you stand. By comparison, T-Mobile’s 5G network largely uses low and mid-band frequencies to achieve greater coverage.
