Verizon turbo charges its 5G network with the addition of more spectrum
Read Time 4 MinutesToday, Verizon announced that it now has access to the total amount of 5G C-band spectrum awarded at auction in March 2021 – four months ahead of schedule.
This allows Verizon to more quickly expand and enhance its 5G Ultra Wideband network nationwide, more than doubling and, in some markets, tripling the 5G bandwidth available to serve customers. This will provide much greater capacity to accommodate more customers and more robust services, as well as enable higher data speeds. This additional spectrum will also allow Verizon to offer 5G Home broadband and Business Internet services to more customers.
“Early access to the remainder of the C-band spectrum puts us another four months ahead of schedule from our original projections. This additional spectrum will make 5G Ultra Wideband available to even more Americans, and will open up more availability of our home and business broadband solutions,” said Joe Russo, EVP & President of Global Networks and Technology for Verizon. “The more spectrum we deploy on our network, the more capacity we add for our customer’s to connect.”
Since Verizon began deploying 5G service using C-band spectrum, the lightning fast 5G service has been made available to more than 222 million people in 359 markets* and more than 40 million households have access to Verizon’s Home Internet with 384,000 new customers subscribing to Verizon’s Fixed Wireless Access based home internet products (both LTE and 5G) in the second quarter of this year alone, bringing total FWA customers to 2.3 million.
Verizon’s C-band holdings
Verizon won C-Band licenses for between 140-200 MHz in all available markets, and began deploying 60 MHz in the first 46 areas in 2022. As the additional spectrum has been cleared by satellite companies outside of the first 46 areas, Verizon has been able to deploy 5G Ultra Wideband using a portion of its licensed bandwidth in many more markets coast to coast.
Now, with final clearance from the satellite incumbents, Verizon will be able to use the entirety of its licensed C-band spectrum, an average of 161 MHz coast to coast with some markets accessing a full 200 MHz. Verizon has been deploying equipment that is capable of the full 200MHz of bandwidth, so with a mere software update, customers will start to see the effects of this dramatic increase in bandwidth in the immediate next few days and weeks.
Specifically, Verizon now has access to:
- A minimum 140 megahertz of total spectrum in the contiguous United States and an average of 161 megahertz nationwide; that’s bandwidth in every available market, 406 markets in all.
- Up to 200 megahertz in 158 mostly rural markets covering nearly 40 million people. This will further enhance Verizon’s broadband solution portfolio for rural America.
“Since we began building 5G, we have had a first mover advantage. We are more than a year ahead in building and selling mmWave with our 5G Ultra Wideband service and still the only company with commercial Mobile Edge Compute. Now we intend to extend our lead by accelerating our deployment of C-Band. Our new C-Band position combined with our mmWave, means we are the only carrier suited to deploy the fastest, most powerful 5G experience to the most people – or as we call it, 5G built right.”
More service in more places
Accelerated access to best-in-class spectrum holdings means greater capacity and faster speeds in major metro areas where Verizon’s network is already undefeated in 96.8% of the metro drive tests (121 out of 125 markets) performed by the most rigorous scientific testing company** in the first half of 2023. Additional spectrum also allows Verizon to continue expanding coverage of its 5G network, the most reliable in the US,*** introducing 5G Ultra Wideband service into even more rural and suburban areas.
* Market is defined in terms of PEA or Partial Economic Area defined by the FCC.
** Rankings based on the RootMetrics® metro RootScore® Reports for 125 metro areas tested during Jan – June 2023: Tested with best commercially available smartphones on three mobile networks across all available network types. Your experiences may vary. The RootMetrics award is not an endorsement of Verizon.
*** Rankings based on the RootMetrics® State of 5G in the US Report: 2H 2022. Tested with best commercially available smartphones on three mobile networks across all available network types. Your experiences may vary. The RootMetrics award is not an endorsement of Verizon.
