As of this week, Sacramento is one of only a handful of cities worldwide to offer 5G residential wireless broadband service from a major Internet provider.
Verizon on Monday rolled out 5G — or fifth-generation — service to parts of Sacramento, along with Los Angeles, Houston and Indianapolis.
With network speeds advertised at 300 megabits per second, that’s between 25 and 60 times faster than Verizon's existing 4G LTE coverage, which ranges from 5 to 12 Mbps.
Access will expand to the rest of Sacramento, the city announced earlier this year, with a goal of early 2019.
Future developments in the 5G lifespan could massively boost wireless Internet speeds available via modems and phones (more on that later).
With an appearance similar to Google Home or Amazon Echo smart speakers, Verizon’s device will take in signals from “small-scale antenna/radios” mounted on Sacramento light poles or utility poles, according to a news release by the city.
Examining raw download speeds, one will notice that Verizon 5G Home in Sacramento won’t immediately offer anything that blazes past options provided by competitors via traditional Wi-Fi modems. The 300 Mbps capability is already offered by AT&T, and Xfinity doesn’t lag too far behind at 250 Mbps. Both companies offer 1,000-plus Mbps plans for higher prices.
According to Verizon and the city, the company will provide necessary infrastructure and a customer base for improved 5G networks down the road. It may take a matter of years for 5G to grow to the anticipated “blazing fast” levels, as technology continues to improve. Sacramento’s status as a pilot city should give it a head start over most U.S. cities, for Verizon customers at the very least.
(c) Sacramento Bee. Distributed by Tribune News Service.
