dslreports logo
 story category
Verizon 5G Will Deliver Gigabit Speeds, Ultra-Low Latency

Verizon says its ultra-fast 5G wireless broadband trials are formally underway. According to a company announcement, Verizon's working with Ericsson, Intel, Nokia, Samsung and Qualcomm on tests that "mimic real world scenarios" using millimeter wave bands, including bands in the FCC’s Notice for Proposed Rulemaking for 5G spectrum. Verizon has previously promised that its implementation of 5G will hit 1 Gbps, with some variation of the technology released in 2017.

Click for full size
Most individuals and companies think Verizon's being a bit premature, since nobody technically knows what 5G even is yet. T-Mobile went so far as to call Verizon's efforts "BS" last week.

For its part, Verizon states that while 5G doesn't exist, Verizon's testing most of the technologies that will likely make up the standard. That will include new variations on millimeter wave antennas, beamforming, beam tracking, massive MIMO (multiple input, multiple output), and wideband spectrum (200 MHz – 1 GHz swaths).

“We plan to expand this testing significantly over the next several months. With innovation occurring so rapidly, we want to quickly make some key technical decisions and move rapidly to pre-commercial form factors and testing later this year,” said Verizon's Adam Koeppe, Vice President Network Technology Planning. “We are also collaborating closely with our peer operators in the Asian markets as we are very much aligned towards implementing 5G technology in 2017.”

The end result of Verizon's experimentation with 5G will be multi-gigabit wireless speeds with single digit latency, promises the company. Just be sure to take Verizon's claims of a 2017 5G "launch" with more than a few grains of salt.

»youtu.be/XFjmrzw-9EM

Most recommended from 33 comments


mmay149q
Premium Member
join:2009-03-05
Dallas, TX

18 recommendations

mmay149q

Premium Member

Lol @1gbps

You can now hit your cap in less than a minute xD

SuperSpy
join:2012-06-15
Coldwater, MI

14 recommendations

SuperSpy

Member

Yaay Caps

My prediction: they will roll out a (say) 20x faster network, then run around trumpeting from the sky how they are the best thing since sliced bread for doubling the monthly data caps. Idiots will flock to them without noticing they are still getting gouged to hell and back, and the overage fees will continue to fly and the base plan prices will still be hilariously high.
Corporate
join:2014-10-04

14 recommendations

Corporate

Member

Verizon 5G Will Deliver Gigabit Speeds, Ultra-Low Data Caps

Fixed that for you.
ham3843
join:2015-01-15
USA

11 recommendations

ham3843

Member

Not interested, where is FiOS for the rest of the Verizon footprint?

I wouldn't go near Verizon wireless considering the prices, and caps....as they are NOW!

I can't imagine how many potential customers they have lost due to failing to
build out their fiber lines FiOS product.
CyberGuy
join:2006-08-21
Colbert, WA

10 recommendations

CyberGuy

Member

And don't forget...

Astronomical pricing.
mikesco8
join:2006-02-17
Southwick, MA

1 edit

9 recommendations

mikesco8

Member

I am happy about this even though I will never be a Verizon customer...

Verizon at least has the power to help create a standard that the other carriers can follow. Sprint tried to be the first out the door with 4G with WIMAX and ended up hurting themselves long term. Sprint and T-mobile will be better off letting Verizon and AT&T go first and establish the standards that they can then improve on.
smk11
join:2014-11-12

4 recommendations

smk11

Member

The Verizon network - powered by expensive marketing

First it was 4G to hide their terrible CDMA voice and 3G dead end. Now it is 5G to hide the fact CDMA is still around while capacity issues are manufactured to make 5G seem desirable.

Smith6612
MVM
join:2008-02-01
North Tonawanda, NY
·Charter
Ubee EU2251
Ubiquiti UAP-IW-HD
Ubiquiti UniFi AP-AC-HD

4 recommendations

Smith6612

MVM

A copy/pasta from my comment on YouTube

5G speeds with only 1GB/m caps. $20/GB overages. You can watch a total of 2 minutes of 4K content a month. Hooray!

Guess what feeds the tower? Fiber! Go back to building that so the existing and future wireless networks can be augmented. Far more reliable, far more consistent. Seeing XLTE bomb to LTE to 3G is pleasing.

Also, do note that 5G hasn't been ratified into a standard yet.

========

Don't forget, true 5G requires Fiber to the tower. Where is Verizon going to find 1Gbps+ per sector? More realistically, even in their ILEC areas the towers don't have Fiber from Verizon, and we probably won't see more than what the existing Gig-E circuits to the towers provide, anyways. Maybe 100Mbps at best for the more rural towers.

Just like anything else wireless, the more you put onto it sitting around, the slower it goes. I don't think 5G is going to solve that overhead problem any time soon.

Vchat20
Landing is the REAL challenge
Premium Member
join:2003-09-16
Columbus, OH

2 recommendations

Vchat20

Premium Member

Wideband (200Mhz-1Ghz) spectrum

That is funny as hell given the spectrum issues we are currently running into and are lucky to get a contiguous 20-30Mhz chunk.

I still say what needs to be done is consolidate all of the core cellular networks into one singular network, standardize on one format. Preferrably LTE and go all IP including voice. And let Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and all the MVNO's run as wholesalers on top of that and compete on their own value adds and pricing. Include a basic 'keep the network built out and up to date' fee in the wholesale cost.

It's stupid that in the vast majority of places these guys are wasting money overbuilding each other. At the very least have them separated in their own specific coverage areas and have completely unhindered cross-carrier roaming with no limits or restrictions. We might have a better shot at getting every last inch of the nation covered then.