NEW YORK—Verizon has announced that it has started deployments with 100 MHz of C-band spectrum in many markets across the US – a significant increase from the 60 MHz it has deployed in 5G markets to date.
The upgrade is notable not only because it will increase speeds for 5G mobile customers. Verizon also aims to use the increased speeds and capacity to become a formidable competitor to traditional home broadband services in new markets across the country.
In the recent trial, using 100 MHz of C-band spectrum, engineers were able to reach 1.4 Gbps peak download speeds near active cell sites and 500 Mbps further away from the towers.
As more spectrum is cleared in the coming months and years, customers ultimately will have access to between 140-200 MHZ across the nation, Verizon said.
“This increase from using 60MHz to 100 MHz of C-band – which we will ultimately have available in many markets across the US – allows us to support more network traffic, deliver even better performance to our customers and add new products and services on top of the mobile and fixed wireless access solutions we provide today,” said Kyle Malady, executive vice president and president, Global Networks and Technology at Verizon. “Reaching new levels of innovation and digital transformation in our society requires a fundamental transformation of the networks our world runs on. The continued evolution of our network is paving the way for this tremendous growth.”
This additional spectrum is being made available to customers in certain markets several months earlier than projected due to agreements with satellite providers to clear C-Band spectrum (which was originally scheduled to be cleared in December 2023).
