Verizon Communications Inc. said on Thursday it will boost its 5G service with more mid-band frequencies, as the U.S. wireless carrier looks to compete with rivals such as AT&T Inc and Sprint Corp in the race to provide the fastest internet speeds. The move comes as Verizon prepares to launch its 5G service in 2020, a year later than initially planned, and amid concerns that some of the early 5G devices may not be able to handle heavy loads. “We’re going to use more mid-band spectrum because it’s better for mobile broadband,” Verizon Chief Technology Officer Randal Milch said at an event in New York City. “It has a lot of capacity.” The move is likely to please customers who have complained about slow speeds on Verizon’s initial 5G deployments using higher frequency bands such as millimeter wave spectrum, which are better suited for short-range communications but can’t travel far indoors or through walls. ..
The rollout of 5G networks in the United States has been slow-moving, especially for Verizon and AT&T. However, Verizon is now testing a new network feature that should improve coverage in some areas.
Even though you might think of 5G as a single technology or feature, there are three main implementations that provide wildly different experiences. Millimeter-wave 5G (also known as mmWave) can offer gigabit-like speeds, but only works at short ranges, so mmWave coverage is only common in busy downtown areas or large public venues. Low-band 5G is the most common, since it can travel the farthest, but only offers minimal speed improvements over 4G and LTE. Finally, there’s mid-band, which is a sweet spot between the two — offering noticeably faster performance than LTE (most of the time) at a decent range. Verizon and AT&T started rolling out C-Band 5G earlier this year, which is in the mid-band spectrum and noticeably improved speeds for many customers.
Verizon announced today that it just completed a 5G data test using the CBRS General Authorized Access (GAA) spectrum, another mid-band frequency in the United States (3.5-3.7 GHz). Some CBRS spectrum is reserved for federal agencies, like military communications, but some is available for companies like Verizon to use as well. Verizon already uses CBRS for 4G access, sometimes referred to as Band 48, and other carriers have tested 4G on CBRS in the past.
It’s not clear yet how CBRS-powered 5G would perform in real-world use, especially compared to C-Band, but CBRS has noticeably improved Verizon’s 4G coverage over the years. OpenSignal reported in December that Verizon’s 4G download speeds in urban areas were nearly 80% faster when using CBRS. C-Band has already been a significant boost to AT&T and Verizon’s 5G coverage, and given that CBRS is a similar area of spectrum, it could improve 5G even more for Verizon customers.
Verizon doesn’t yet have a timeline on when it will roll out 5G access on CBRS.
Source: Verizon
