Verizon is catching up in the 5G wars, with the company now covering more than 175 million people with its fastest 5G Ultra Wideband.
5G comes in three flavors: long-range but slower low-band, well-balanced mid-band spectrum, and high-band mmWave that offers the fastest speeds but poor range. Verizon initially bet big on mmWave before spending billions on mid-band C-band spectrum. Verizon refers to its C-band and mmWave collectively as 5G Ultra Wideband.
The company’s rollout of its Ultra Wideband is moving faster than expected, with Verizon now covering more than 175 million people. The company was originally hoping to reach that goal by the end of 2022, putting it a month ahead of schedule.
“Our customers don’t stand still and neither does our network. Today, more than one out of every two Americans now have access to 5G Ultra Wideband. We know our customers rely on our service every day and we work for them – continuously enhancing, expanding and improving our wireless network,” said Hans Vestberg, Chairman and CEO of Verizon. “And as proud as I am to have crossed this milestone, I am equally proud of the way we are building our network – with the most advanced technologies, industry leading security, a robust fiber underpinning and a robust and varied spectrum portfolio. We are building this right. We are building this as a platform for innovation for years to come.”