Malcolm Owen
Verizon has launched its 5G Home Internet service in four cities, competing against normal home broadband with a cellular-based version boasting connection speeds of up to 300Mbps, with an Apple TV 4K offered to tempt customers to sign up to the service.
As previously announced by the carrier, Verizon's 5G Home service has gone live in four markets, with limited areas of Sacramento and Los Angeles, CA; Houston, TX; and Indianapolis, IN. able to sign up for in the initial rollout.
Verizon is offering three months for free, then the service will cost $50 per month for existing Verizon subscribers, $70 for everyone else.
Running on Verizon's "proprietary 5G standard," 5G Home is similar to a typical home broadband service, with Internet access provided via a single router, albeit one that uses the carrier's cellular network instead of a physical connection. Speeds of around 300 megabits per second are touted, rising to nearly gigabit speeds in some areas, seemingly with no data caps.
To sweeten the deal for early adopters, customers can request either a free Apple TV 4K or Chromecast Ultra, provided at the time of installation, as well as three free months of YouTube TV access. Those signing up are also to receive "white glove installation" of the service, a 24-hour concierge line, access to the first wave of 5G-capable mobile devices when they become available, and free hardware upgrades when they become available in the first year.
The latter point is likely to be very beneficial to customers, as Verizon is using its own version of 5G for the service, rather than an industry standard variant. As the iteration used will only communicate with specialized devices, in this case 5G Home routers, when the company migrates to standard 3GPP 5G NR technology for future installations in new areas, hardware upgrades are likely to be offered to the earlier customers.
The rollout of the service will also help Verizon in expanding its 5G network in general, which will provide high-speed connectivity for future smartphones and other mobile devices. While Verizon does claim the title as the first of the U.S. operators to produce a commercial 5G network with their 5G Home product, it is likely that subscribers will have to wait until 2019 before they can receive the same speed benefits from their smartphones.
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20 Comments
In my mind the term "proprietary standard" is an oxymoron. If it's proprietary who cares if the company that is controlling the technology considers it their own internal standard? Secret sausage stuffing is still just sausage stuffing. Nobody other than the company stuffing the sausage has any idea about what goes into it. To add insult to injury throwing "5G" in the recipe further obfuscates the whole deal. If their customers think they are somehow "future proofing" their current investments by buying into a "proprietary 5G standard" that sounds a lot like a real standard, they are in for a rude awakening down the road. Proprietary means closed, proprietary means captive, and proprietary means paying again later to overcome the limitations of the dead-end proprietary technology. These things usually end with a "pay me now" and "pay me later." I'm willing to wait and only pay later.
While I'm wary of the "proprietary" business, too, I think I may be envious of Indianapolis residents for the first time in my life.
This has a lot of promise. I'm a little unclear on the details though. This is essentially a cell based modem that plugs into a router, right? Or is the supplied device both a cell link and a wifi router? I'd kind of line to see it as a modem only kind of thing I can plug into an existing network of airports (or future wifi routers.)
I like it. I have no cable at my vacation home, here in California, just Verizon cellular. I get about three bars and that is adequate for my needs. I have OTA TV which is fine since we get like a hundred channels from LA. Faster speed would be good for Apple TV (and Amazon Fire) content. in my other home in Central America I have Apple TV and Amazon running on Safer VPN so the family can watch stateside movies. Personally I don't watch much TV.