As of the end of 2019, Verizon 5G had launched service in 31 cities in the United States. As the network expands in 2020, more customers will benefit from the promised 1 Gbit/s speeds, but 5G has other advantages. In a meeting room in the heart of the Sands Convention Center at CES 2020, Ronan Dunne, CEO of Verizon's wireless consumer group, explained to TechRadar how the properties of the network will allow the operator to upgrade much more often than the 4G network. "In an LTE world, I had two software drops a year," Dunne said. “On the 5G network, we see a weekly drop in software. We're seeing new features, new capabilities, new improvements in beam and spectrum efficiency. The post-deployment innovation curve is therefore much faster than in the 4G world. "
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Bottom line: Verizon's 5G network will improve at a faster rate than 4G, at least in terms of software. But that could make you more agile when adapting to new technologies or strategies. Verizon will, of course, continue to develop its infrastructure. The carrier's 5G network reached 31 cities by the end of 2019, though Dunne doesn't say how many carriers it plans to expand in 2020. It's not just a city-by-city expansion: While Verizon 5G was originally built on top of the carrier's existing 4G network , the next step is to develop your own fully virtualized 5G network core. Basically: lower priority data like authentication will be on the 4G network, while the upcoming 5G core will be dedicated to big data exchanges. Rapid software updates won't be limited to just 5G mobile, as Verizon is also updating its 5G Home in 2020.
(Image credit: Verizon)
5G out there, and at home
While Verizon has been promoting 5G Home, essentially using cell towers to route 5G to customers' homes as an alternative to wired home internet, the company hasn't said much about its wider availability than what's currently offered in some cities including Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Houston and now Chicago. In our chat, Dunne confirmed that the Qualcomm CPE chip at the heart of 5G Home has been delayed, but they hope to see it arrive in mid-2020. Once that happens, Verizon will have a further push for 5G Home in the second half of the year. . We saw Verizon 5G Home during a demo for its launch in Chicago, and while the speeds we saw of 147.2 Mbps were nominally better than conventional home internet, we had questions about its capability in real-world deployments. Would trees or other obstructions between the tower and customer homes limit these speeds? Or would the signal drop away from the signal transmitter? 5G Home has a lot of potential for its simplified installation (more cable runs) and its potential for more streamlined upgrades (live upgrades instead of replacing old cable with better new lines). Until we see it working in real conditions, we'll be happy with its capabilities, but beware of complications.