Forward-looking: Verizon has announced launch plans for the world's first commercial broadband 5G service and it's happening sooner than you might have guessed.
Dubbed Verizon 5G Home, the service launches on October 1 for select residents in Houston, Los Angeles, Indianapolis and Sacramento. Interested parties can order the service starting September 13 and take advantage of several early adopter perks including three free months of YouTube TV, a free Apple TV 4K or Google Chromecast Ultra device and free installation and equipment.
Verizon 5G Home subscribers also get first dibs on purchasing new 5G mobile devices when they hit the market.
The first three months of service are on the house. After that, Verizon Wireless customers with a qualifying smartphone plan will pay $50 per month for the home broadband service. If you aren't a Verizon Wireless customer, the cost will be $70 per month. The monthly rate includes all taxes and fees and there is no annual contract required.
Verizon says 5G Home subscribers can expect average network speeds of around 300 Mbps with peak speeds of nearly 1 Gig and no data caps.
Verizon 5G Home is built on the company's 5G Ultra Wideband network which combines:
- End-to-end deep fiber resources throughout the network
- A large deployment of small cells
- Critical, and best-in-class spectrum holdings, particularly in the millimeter wave bands, the only spectrum with the bandwidth to realize the full 5G potential for capacity, throughput and latency
Ronan Dunne, head of Verizon's wireless business, said they developed early standards that allowed the industry and hardware / software manufacturers to build solutions more quickly. "As a result of this initiative and ongoing collaboration, we will rapidly deliver the promise of 5G to our customers," he added.