VERIZON

Company Expands 5G Home Internet to Detroit

Americans want more choices in home internet, and since 2018, Verizon has sworn that it will use 5G to provide them. Today we saw the first expansion of its 5G Home product in quite a while, as the system launched in Detroit, and Verizon converted its Indianapolis and LA systems to the current 5G-NR standard.
Verizon has an unusually dense 5G rollout in downtown Detroit, Dearborn, Garden City, and parts of Rochester in Michigan, so while it doesn't offer a specific coverage map for its 5G home service, it's likely to be in those areas.
The service comes with an Alexa-enabled Wi-Fi 6 router as well as a free month of YouTube TV, three months of Google Stadia, and a year of Disney+.
Unlimited 5G home service costs $50 for Verizon Wireless customers and $70 for non-customers, and Verizon has in the past estimated download speeds of at least 300Mbps.
According to BroadbandNow, AT&T, Xfinity, and WOW! have service in Dearborn, with prices for 200Mbps service starting at $49.99 per month.
Verizon says it will have service in 10 cities by the end of the year, but it's still waiting for critical equipment. Verizon uses the short-range millimeter-wave system to distribute 5G. It needs home modems based on the new Qualcomm QTM527 antenna system, which can extend the system's range, as well as potentially in-home repeaters from its new partner Pivotal Commware; both are supposedly coming later this year.
Verizon also initially launched its home product based on a proprietary pre-standard, called 5GTF. To get to the next stage, it needs to swap out all of the old 5GTF equipment for global standard 5GNR equipment, which it says it's now doing in Indianapolis and Los Angeles.

Sascha Segan