Tag: Ultra Wideband

What Are Verizon and Live Nation Doing to Improve the Way We View Live Events

Using Ultra Wideband 5G service as the foundation of its partnership, Verizon Wireless and Live Nation will help to evolve the way we experience live events. The companies will work along with artists to create content that allows the fans to be totally immersed in the event, whether it be live or virtual. 

To commemorate this partnership, Verizon Wireless has launched a new “First Access” ticket presale program, which is exclusive for Verizon Up members. Verizon Up is the company’s award-winning customer loyalty program. It is free to join, easy to use and available via the My Verizon app. For more details, visit Verizon Up.

It’s already been announced that “First Access” will be available for some upcoming live tours – this includes The Weeknd, Imagine Dragons, Dierks Bentley, Rosalía and more. The team will be announcing additional artist tours at a later date.

Verizon has been busy deploying 5G Ultra Wideband in Live Nation clubs, theaters, and amphitheaters across the country. Each iconic U.S. venue is outfitted with connectivity that is built to handle large scale events. This will allow concert-goers to stream, share photos and videos, and download content at speeds up to 10x faster than 4G.

For the virtual events, Verizon and Live Nation will provide exclusive access via Veeps, a streaming platform that is part of the +play, a new platform exclusive to Verizon customers. It will launch later this year.

“The partnership we’re announcing today is a continuation and deepening of Verizon’s long-standing relationship with Live Nation,” said Hans Vestberg, Chairman and CEO Verizon. “Predicated on technology and our massive consumer base, this partnership will elevate the ecosystem of music – how fans engage, how artists produce and perform, and how venues deliver enhanced in-person experiences and scale them digitally.”

“Verizon has always been a great partner and we’re excited to build something together by integrating their 5G technology into many of our venues,” said Michael Rapino, President and CEO of Live Nation. “With more connectivity than ever, we look forward to seeing what artists and fans create and share as they enjoy live shows together.”

What Can We Expect From 5G at Live Events

Around 380,000+ have already experienced some of what’s ahead at this year’s Super Bowl. In the future, these 5G-powered venues will have real-time innovations. This includes AR filters tied to Live Nation venues and events, integration of 5G multi-cam features for livestream shows, exclusive NFTs for Verizon customers redeemable for in-venue benefits, virtual venues with 5G-captured performances in a 3D world, and more.

“Using the power of Verizon 5G technology in sports and now music, we delivered an experience with an unparalleled level of access for the Pepsi Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show, one of the most-watched events of the year,” said Diego Scotti, CMO, Verizon. “This partnership with Live Nation opens the door for artists to enhance fan engagement and participation, and shape the future of live events.”

Wondering where you might be able to experience 5G-enabled events? You can find them in several major cities including The Wiltern in Los Angeles; The Fillmore in Miami, and Silver Spring; the House of Blues in Anaheim, Chicago, Dallas, Houston and San Diego, and more. Verizon is also making a big change at the iconic Irving Plaza in New York City. It will be renamed Irving Plaza Powered by Verizon 5G. The newly renovated club will offer special access to Verizon Up members and provide an interactive experience for fans.

First Access

“First Access,” is the new presale ticket access for Verizon Up members. It gives special access to Live Nation tours before they are opened to the general public. The program kicked off in early March with a presale for The Weeknd “After Hours Til Dawn Tour.” 

Per Verizon Wireless, “First Access” will continue to provide access to millions of presale concert tickets for top Live Nation tours throughout 2022 and beyond. They promise to deliver access and special entry to some of the most anticipated shows now and in the coming years.

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What is the Latest on Verizon’s C-band Deployment

Last week, we reported that Verizon Wireless would be adding more C-band coverage to 30 additional markets this year. This is happening about a year ahead of schedule. 

With a budget of more than $45 billion, Verizon obtained C-band at a FCC auction and received an average of 161 MHz nationwide, including 60 MHz in the top 46 markets, which is where it’s already deployed covering 100 million people. Additional markets covered by the so-called “A block” licenses in the 3.7-3.8 GHz range, weren’t expected to be ready until the December 2023 time frame.

Verizon can utilize those A block licenses now to deploy its 5G Ultra Wideband service “on at least 60 MHz of spectrum and up to 100 MHz of spectrum in some areas.” Those include large metro areas of Atlanta, Baltimore, Washington D.C., and Denver.

The second part of the C-band rollout, which is an additional 180 MHz of spectrum between 3.8 GHz-3.98 GHz, remains on track to be cleared in December 2023, according to a Verizon spokesperson.

In addition to the amount paid for the licenses, Verizon owed clearing costs to ready the band plus incentive payments. This enticed satellite operators to speed up the process and they made the spectrum available earlier.

Roger Entner, principal and founder of Recon Analytics, says he expected things to play out as they are. Following the auction, the FCC encouraged satellite players and license winners to negotiate for faster clearing times.

Due to the quicker schedule, Entner says Verizon is paying additional money to those like SES, however the carrier declined to disclose details on the contracts.

Verizon will also likely be quick to gain access to any A-block spectrum that is not covered by current agreements.

“You can bet they are heavily negotiating with the other satellite providers to also clear that out and so that they can accelerate this even further,” Entner said, adding those payments would be less as there’s a time value component – say for six months early versus a year.

With so much competition from T-Mobile lately, it’s clear why Verizon has been moving so quickly to deploy C-band service. They started by increasing coverage from zero to 90 million when it launched on January 19. Then, it increased by 5 million one week later, and now they are up to more than 100 million.

“This early spectrum clearance is just the latest development that allows us to bring 5G Ultra Wideband to our customers faster,” said Kyle Malady, EVP and president of Global Network and Technology, in the announcement. “We’ve been able to accelerate deployment because we’re driving more efficiency and coverage from the C-band spectrum, leveraging opportunities like the one we are announcing today, and leveraging our already in place infrastructure. In my career with Verizon, I have never experienced a network deployment move so quickly.”

A-block Licenses

While AT&T focused on less expensive B and C block licenses, Verizon set its sights on A block licenses during Auction 107. This is part of the key to 5G C-band access. 

“Their game plan is coming nicely to fruition,” Entner said of Verizon’s focus on those licenses. “They’re getting the markets faster.”

According to Entner, Verizon is getting a full 100 MHz of C-band earlier than expected in certain locations. To users in some cities smaller than the top 46 Partial Economic Areas (PEAs), this could mean faster bandwidth speeds even sooner than those in the largest markets would receive. The reason for this is that, of the earliest available A block C-band, Verizon has 60 MHz in those 46 markets while AT&T has 40 MHz. They are essentially sharing the 100 MHz A-block until 2023, which is when AT&T is expected to shift to the B/C block license channels. After that, Verizon will obtain its full amount of A block spectrum.

Even so, Verizon can always negotiate to have full access in any of the markets smaller than the top 46, Entner noted. That was made evident when Verizon recently announced the full 100 MHz for some markets.

C-band

As it’s been said multiple times before, Verizon needs to step up their competition and pushing up its C-band deployment to cover more people with mid-band 5G is going to be the key to this. 

“Verizon really needs this,” Entner said of the faster C-band deployment timeline.

The carrier gained new subscribers last year, but not net accounts. Essentially, their growth was solely from existing customers adding new lines, Entner explained. 

“That is not sustainable, it’s like wringing water out of an already dry sponge,” Entner said.

Most might say this is because of the premium price Verizon has been known to charge for their service. This has become more challenging for the carrier as third-party speed results continue to show T-Mobile as the 5G network leader for speeds and coverage.

“And when the claim and reality become divergent, you have a problem,” Entner said.

Consumer perception and lack of account growth is “why they [Verizon] really need C-band and C-band fast, so that they can close the gap with T-Mobile,” he continued. “So that T-Mobile can’t say ‘I have a faster network and I’m cheaper’ to consumers.”

Speeding up the deployment of C-band could help Verizon to catch up with T-Mobile. Although they have big plans to reach 300 million people with mid-band spectrum by the end of 2023. Verizon only expects to cover 250 million by the end of 2024.

For comparison, AT&T is set to cover 200 million people by the end of 2023 with mid-band 5G, including 3.45 GHz spectrum.

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Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband Network to Cover 175 Million People By Year’s End

As of yesterday, Verizon announced that thanks to its network engineering team, it is ahead of schedule with its deployment of 5G Ultra Wideband technology. They plan on reaching 175 million people with their 10x faster (than LTE) 5G service by the end of the year.

The company noted their Investor Day 2022, during which the leadership team outlined its goals for the next several years. They aim to grow with the quickly evolving needs of the user.  

Of the topics outlined, each showed multiple paths to growth: 5G Mobility, Nationwide Broadband, Mobile Edge Compute (MEC) and business solutions, the Value Market and Network Monetization. 

They also stated expectations that it will “drive 4 percent service and other revenue growth for the company in 2024 and beyond.”

“Through our deliberate strategy of investment and divestment we have already significantly increased the size of our addressable market which, over the next 5 years, should grow an additional $120B. We chose a strategy where we not only participate in a much larger market but also a market where we are in the leading position in our paths to growth,” said Hans Vestberg, Verizon Chairman and CEO. “Verizon’s transformative technology and Network-as-a-Service platform is what enables the 5G Economy and makes us the partner of choice for key customers and applications providers. Our high-capacity, low-latency network delivers a superior, unmatched experience that will enable all of our stakeholders to live, work and play in new and amazing ways for years to come.”

Vestberg continued on saying, “Verizon’s networks power a future-proof strategy, built on strong trends in Mobility, Broadband and Cloud. We imagined a world of hyper-connectivity and massive capacity, knowing it would inspire innovation and new use cases. We see immense momentum today and what has us most excited is that we know that our network will support use cases that have not yet even been imagined.”

The Metaverse

As 5G becomes more available with Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband network, they’re looking for opportunities for partnerships. They’ve paired up with Meta in a “first-of-its-kind strategic partnership.” Their vision is to couple their 5G Ultra Wideband network and edge compute capabilities with Meta’s technologies to understand the foundational requirements for metaverse applications. They’ll work together to evaluate how Verizon’s mobile edge compute infrastructure can provide intensive XR cloud rendering and low latency streaming, which are core capabilities needed for metaverse applications.

Private Networking

With traditional wireless technology solutions, organizations are often left with coverage gaps, fractured security and inconsistent service quality that leads to costly downtime and lower productivity. To solve this problem for its customers, Verizon Business announced a new, cost competitive, turn-key private networking solution with Celona, that will accelerate the use of private 5G to support a new generation of business initiatives. Together, Verizon and Celona will offer one solution with a common relationship, contract, support center and implementation team.

+play, a new content hub

Verizon also announced a new “+play” feature for subscribers, offering a “direct-to-consumer platform” to allow users to discover, purchase, and manage their favorite subscriptions in one place (similar to Apple TV or Prime Video Channels). Verizon customers will have access to exclusive deals through partnerships with Disney+, Netflix, Peloton, and others. +play is set to launch later this year, with limited trials beginning at the end of this month.

Ultra C-Band

With the expansion of C-Band coverage, Verizon provides additional growth opportunities in nationwide broadband with over 150,000 net additions expected for fixed wireless access alone in the first quarter of 2022.

Over the next few years, they plan to significantly expand its fixed wireless coverage of households and businesses. Ideally, they’ll cover 50 million households and 14 million businesses, and have 4 to 5 million total fixed wireless subscribers by the end of 2025.

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Who is the fastest 5G carrier in the US?

According to the latest report from RootMetrics T-Mobile may have the fastest 5G speeds and greatest 5G availability, but what about reliability?

When measuring only 5G reliability, a different carrier, Verizon, came out on top.

The timing of this testing however, is important to note. 5G performance was done during the second half of 2021. At the start of the New Year, you may recall that Verizon and AT&T were finally able to turn on their new C-Band 5G coverare, which brings faster average speeds to a greater number of people (more than 90 million, according to Verizon). AT&T has only a handful of cities covered at this point.

The RootMetrics report gathered results from tests that were run in 125 of the largest cities in the U.S. In the end, they found T-Mobile had the fastest 5G download speeds in 48 markets, compared to three for Verizon and zero for AT&T. Median download speeds for T-Mobile topped 100 Mbps in more than half the cities RootMetrics tested in. In 26 markets, the speeds topped 200 Mbps.

T-Mobile was also determined to have the best 5G availability. With the highest availability in 83 tested markets, T-Mobile topped AT&T (62 markets) and Verizon (6 markets).

In comparison with 5G reliability, T-Mobile was actually found to have the lowest amount at 19. Verizon had the best in 93 markets, also topping AT&T, which only showed in 67 markets. 

These findings weren’t just determined by RootMetrics either. Their results are right inline with what has been seen from other third party testers. Back in January, OpenSignal published a 5G performance report in which T-Mobile not only had the fastest 5g download speeds, but was 93.9 Mbps faster than its closest rival. T-Mobile also came out on top for availability and reach.

When comparing T-Mobile’s approach to the 5G rollout to that of AT&T and Verizon’s, it’s clear that T-Mobile got ahead by using sub-6GHz spectrum to create a far-reaching 5G nationwide network. The network now reaches more than 310 million people. More recently, they’ve begun using mid-band spectrum — much of it obtained through the merger with Sprint — to boost speeds. T-Mobile calls this their Ultra Capacity 5G service and it covers some 210 million people.

Verizon and AT&T started their 5G journey by concentrating on mmWave-based 5G. This can be very fast, but has a limited range. mmWave-based towers are in select cities. To provide more coverage, but at slower speed, the two carriers use sub-6GHz 5G.

After a few delays and limitations AT&T and Verizon were able to roll out more coverage in January, this time on the faster C-Band spectrum. The higher band spectrum has a wider reach than mmWave, enabling both carriers to reach more people with faster 5G service. In Verizon’s case, they have more than 90 million people being covered with the carrier’s fastest Ultra Wideband 5G. AT&T is rolling out its C-Band 5G, though on a more limited basis currently.

C-Band tests have been done in a number of different locations and already seems to be improving performance for Verizon. Right after C-Band 5G went live, testing firm Ookla published a report claiming that Verizon’s average 5G download speed jumped to 116.3 Mbps from 76.5 Mbps within the course of a week. For comparison, T-Mobile speeds increased from 182 Mbps to 187.1 Mbps in that same time period.

With the recent upgrades and third party tests that have come out, it would seem the leader board is bound to shift by RootMetrics’ next test. Only time will tell!

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What is Verizon 5G Home Internet and 5G Business Internet?

After an exciting halftime show at the Super Bowl, Jim Carrey reprised his role in “The Cable Guy” to market Verizon’s new 5G Home and Business Internet solutions. The ad showcased how fast and easy the equipment was to set up as well as how it compares to traditional cable services. 

Today, Verizon is jumping back to their 5G expansion plans. They’ve already met their goal of 100 million users covered with 5G Ultra Wideband service and are capable of providing the Home and Business Internet solutions to 30 million households and more than 2 million businesses.

“We can’t wait for customers to experience our fast, reliable and secure internet options like our ultra-fast, ultra simple Home Internet, and we’ll continue to bring them to more and more places around the country, paving the path to becoming the top home Internet provider in America,” said Manon Brouillette, CEO of Verizon’s Consumer Group.

With 5G Home Internet, customers can be up and running with their computers, phones, tablets and any other network device, in a matter of minutes – whether they set it up themselves or have Verizon install it. They also have two options: 5G Home or 5G Home Plus. And, it’s 50 percent off for customers on one of Verizon’s new 5G Ultra Wideband Unlimited plans (only when you combine your plan with 5G Do More, 5G Play More or 5G Get More plan. Also requires Auto Pay and paper-free billing) There are no annual contracts, extra fees, data overages or equipment charges. The price is the price, guaranteed. Customers can even get the first month on Verizon.

5G Business Internet also offers customers great performance and reliability, with an easy setup, on all their devices. This solution can fit businesses of all sizes and includes self setup or professional installation options, multiple pricing and service options, unlimited data, and a 10-year price guarantee (applies to monthly access fee only).

Verizon’s wireless Internet solutions with fast, reliable and secure 5G Home Internet and 5G Business Internet are already available (or will be this week) in parts of Omaha, NE; Boise, ID; El Paso, TX; Grand Rapids, MI and Panama City, FL. 5G Home Internet will be available in parts of Baltimore, MD, next month.

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How Will 5G Affect the Way We View the Super Bowl Halftime Show?

Verizon Wireless is about to make 5G history at this year’s Super Bowl halftime show. They started their journey to provide 5G Ultra Wideband service to 100 million users nationwide and now they’re making even more 5G services available with 5G Home Internet and 5G Business Internet.

The most exciting thing to come from this journey – aside from the additional 5G coverage for us consumers – is the tech they’re incorporating into the Pepsi Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show. Verizon will also showcase the speed and power of its 5G network throughout the game broadcast – from the on-field action to immersive mobile access to the halftime show.

This is in fact Verizon’s fifth consecutive year with an in-game advertisement and they’re pulling out all the stops with funny man Jim Carrey reprising his role as “The Cable Guy.”  

The show will be streamed in real-time via several 360-degree 4K cameras placed around the stadium, field, and stage. This will give fans what Verizon is calling a “second screen experience.” Using the Pepsi Halftime mobile app, fans will be able to enter their “Pepsi Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show Ultra Pass Powered by Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband” and gain access to “exclusive vantage points not accessible on television.” 

“The Pepsi Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show Ultra Pass Powered by Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband is so much more than just a second-screen experience, it lets fans feel as though they are on stage with the artists,” said Diego Scotti, CMO, Verizon. “Utilizing 5G Ultra Wideband technology and in close partnership with Pepsi, Roc Nation and the NFL, we are able to enhance one of the most-watched events of the year, in a way that’s never been done before, opening the doors for the future of live events.”

“This year’s Pepsi Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show performance is already among the most anticipated of all time, so we wanted to provide fans with an unprecedented level of access. Since most people already consume content on their mobile devices while watching the game on TV, we thought it was a great opportunity to create a new, immersive way for fans to experience the performance – as if they were on the stage or in the stadium itself – all from within our Pepsi Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show mobile app,” said Todd Kaplan, VP of Marketing, Pepsi. 

For fans that will be attending the big game, Verizon is also providing their “5G Multi-View” which will be found within the NFL Ticketholder app. This will however be limited to select Android and iOS 5G phones. It will give those fans the opportunity to engage with up to seven different camera angles, project AR overlays of NFL’s Next Gen Stats for players, and access instant replays. Using Verizon 5G Multi-View means you will never miss a moment of the on-field action – it will be right in the palm of your hand. 

Among the investments Verizon has put into their 5G network, they made a $119 million long term investment throughout Los Angeles and Inglewood, just in preparation for the big game. Of course, that investment on 169 small cells, 4 macro cell sites, and 24 new in-building systems is going to benefit customers living in and traveling to the area for quite some time to come. With regards to the Super Bowl, these solutions will provide reliable, secure service to visitors attending the game, NFL players and staff, first responders and residents of Los Angeles and Inglewood enjoying all the festivities surrounding the big game and beyond.

With all the commotion the Super Bowl brings, we can’t forget about the first responders and workers around the stadium keeping us safe. Verizon Frontline, the advanced network and technology built for first responders, is working closely with public safety agencies throughout Los Angeles County to help ensure first responders have the reliable connectivity they need to protect fans at the game and those in the local community. The Verizon Command Center will also be operating around the clock to help ensure first responders and fans are able to communicate effectively.

For fans at home, you’ve now got the option of 5G Home Internet, available in select areas. Set up is plug and play and will allow you to connect all your TVs, tablets, phones, gaming consoles, etc, to Verizon’s fast 5G network. 

There’s also 5G Business Internet (available in select areas), which gives business customers a wireless alternative to cable internet. It can support businesses of all sizes and includes self setup or professional installation options, multiple pricing and service options, unlimited data, and a 10-year price guarantee (Price guarantee applies to monthly access fee only. Terms and restrictions apply).

So, whether fans are at the game, at home, or on the go, they can stream, tweet, Snap and share quickly and reliably, using Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband network.

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How Can 5G Change Your “Live” Sports Experience

Up until more recently, every sports fan would likely agree that the best way to watch live sports is in a loud stadium packed with other like minded fans. Due to the changes we’ve all had to face with the pandemic, it’s now more difficult to feel comfortable around thousands of strangers.

At-home tech is growing and making it more possible for fans to enjoy the same benefits from the safety of their couch. Fans aren’t only interested in watching the live games, but they are now looking more at real-time tracking of scores and stats. They may even be streaming multiple games at the same time. And what would make the experience even better? To be totally immersed within the game using augmented reality. This truly 21st century tech can now be made possible thanks to Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband service. 

5G Ultra Wideband is available in select areas right now, but Verizon is slowly rolling out more coverage. As Verizon continues to expand this service coverage and as 5G adoption increases, users will be able to experience a secure, reliable connection that offers great speeds, massive capacity and low latency. 

With the Big Game ready to go this weekend, and more fans feeling comfortable about getting together, 5G Ultra Wideband enables endless possibilities for a second-screen experience while attending live games. Moving forward, this could shape stadium operations in a way that makes navigating a crowded stadium more seamless.

5G Ultra Wideband in crowded stadiums

Assuming you’ve ever found yourself at a crowded event, you may have experienced times where your smartphone essentially stops providing a cellular signal, or you simply have no speed to do anything. You may be able to place a phone call, but forget about texts or social media posts, and especially don’t think about trying to stream any video. 

“At stadiums where you’re packing 70,000 or 80,000 people into a confined area, connectivity has been a challenge for years,” says Eric Nagy, director of sports partnerships and innovation at Verizon. “So when you look at 5G and its characteristics, it really fits in nicely when it comes to stadiums. When you are connected to 5G Ultra Wideband in such a crowded, tight area, you can still get outstanding performance and do things that those around you can’t.”

According to Verizon’s announcement, “5G Ultra Wideband’s high performance should transform not only stadiums but the operations of retail stores, restaurants and even cities. For an enterprise, it could create a safer factory floor and many other benefits.”

There’s several applications for in-person fans that are already showing great promise. Fans will be able to easily track statistics and win probability, pull up in-game stats on the game they’re attending or even stream additional games on their mobile device. It also opens the door to entirely new and innovative ways of experiencing the game.

Enter Verizon’s 5G Multi-View experience – “a dynamic, personalized mobile streaming experience, available in select stadiums, that allows fans to view seven camera angles at once, choose replays from any angle and stay connected to family and friends with a selfie cam.” On some 5G-enabled phones, the experience adds AR-overlays of stats like top plays and win probability.

There’s also some exciting features from the folks at ShotTracker, a Verizon Ventures portfolio company. They have built hardware that uses sensors on the ball, in spots around the field, and even on the players. This allows them to track activity in real-time and send that data back where coaches and players can review them. With access to live analytics, it can help players learn from mistakes and the coach at making quicker decisions on how to proceed. 

“Most dynamic of all may be the impact on the fan experience,” says Davyeon Ross, co-founder and president at ShotTracker. “Not only does live data-sharing enable broadcasters to show fans value-add diagrams like shot maps or up-to-the-second stats, but the future could be headed for an experience that fans can more easily personalize, both at the game and at home.” 

It’s easy to imagine the possibilities now with 5G. Having cameras on the players, ShotTracker’s technology, and a reliable 5G connection in place may one day allow us to view the game from that player’s perspective. 

“Our data is connected to the video, so we could make it so that if you’re home, you could configure it and say, ‘hey, I want to choose what view I want to see. I want a ‘Zion Cam’ or maybe I want this pylon view that’s available,’” Ross says, referring to cameras attached to an individual player or pylons around a stadium. “Historically, broadcasters have controlled what we see as consumers. I think the evolution of 5G is not only in-stadium, but outside of stadiums. It’s going to empower and amplify those solutions to allow a certain level of personalization that will come in the future.”

Evolving the fan experience

In the near future, 5G has the potential of completely revolutionizing the way fans experience “live” sports. As we’ve already seen with T-Mobile at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, one area that can greatly benefit are stadiums and their day to day operations. Imagine having the option to enter the game with ticketless, hands-free entry or quickly grab snacks, beverages or merchandise by paying with touchless sales options rather than using a card or smart device. In an effort to start that process, Verizon opened a 5G-powered store offering “grab and go” checkout at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami on December 19th.

“I visited our ‘frictionless’ store in Miami,” says Nagy, “and I walked in and walked out within 30 seconds buying the merchandise that I needed.”

With regards to augmented reality, some ideas have been to show fans wait times – on bathroom lines, concession stands, or at the exit gates.  Other innovations have yet to be envisioned. And even with the progress, Nagy says Verizon will continue to take in fan input and shape the stadium experience moving forward. His team is studying, for instance, how fans interact with the Multi-View experience. 

“Is this something that you use when you’re going out for a break to grab a beverage and want to stay up to date with the game? Or is it something you’re going to use in your seat when you’re sitting 20 rows back from the field?” Nagy asks. “We’re exploring that right now, and we take a lot of feedback from fans.”

How Teams Can Improve with 5G Tech

Aside from the fan experience, 5G is making a profound impact on the sporting world. This was most recently displayed during the Phoenix Suns’ last season. The team and their coaching staff utilized Verizon 5G and advanced analytic tools, which helped the Suns reveal otherwise hidden insights. In use were 150 HD cameras, sensors, nodes and 3D force plates, all of which was to capture computer-aided motion analysis, player and ball tracking, and shot tracking. It then leveraged 5G Ultra Wideband connectivity to tie it all together into a single integrated system.

It’s not just basketball either. Teams across almost every sport have started to integrate some type of 5G technology. Nagy says a recent use case with the NHL allowed for testers to point their 5G device, using an AR app running on Verizon’s 5G Edge with AWS wavelength, at any player on the ice and see real-time stats overlaid in AR, such as player speed, time on ice and historical stats.

“There could be a world where you have models written so you can detect certain defenses, and then you could get suggestions on what you do to counteract that,” Nagy says. “Could that be the future? I don’t know. I think the key is that the technology and 5G will help enable that.

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Verizon 5G Map with Ultra Wide

Verizon recently updated its Verizon 5G nationwide coverage map with its new “Ultra Wideband” C-Band coverage. We now know exactly where Verizon says more than 90 million Americans will be able to get this new C-Band service. 

According to Verizon Wireless, it offers two types of 5G service: “5G Ultra Wideband and 5G Nationwide.

  • 5G Ultra Wideband is Verizon’s fastest 5G. According to Verizon, 5G Ultra Wideband experiences speeds up to twn times faster and respond quicker than 4G, thanks to its access to both 5G high bands and low bands. 5G Ultra Wideband speeds range from 300 Mbps to 1 Gbps.
  • 5G Nationwide runs alongside 4G LTE; it delivers a similar experience to Verizon’s 4G LTE network, which provides a convenient, reliable, and widely available 5G network.

Only Verizon’s top Unlimited plans provide access to 5G Ultra Wideband and 5G Nationwide. All other plans provide access to 5G Nationwide only.

Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband Coverage Map Accuracy

According to some users, Verizon’s updated 5G Ultra Wideband coverage map isn’t very accurate now. These users found that C-Band was available in some of the indicated areas on the coverage map but was non-existent in others. The current Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband coverage map seems to be more of a projection of where C-Band is and where it will eventually be in the near future. Then again, coverage maps generally can’t meet the level we’d like them to be at, which is to tell us how good the coverage is here or there. 

Aside from allowing phones access to double or triple LTE speeds, Verizon plans to utilize the new airwaves to expand its $50/month wireless home internet offering. Coverage for wireless home internet won’t be available everywhere and will depend on available network capacity.

Verizon Rural C-Band Coverage

To 5Gstore’s surprise, there appears to be C-Band coverage in more rural areas than we’ve seen before, including in some areas that are located hundreds of miles away from large cities. These include areas in southwest Indiana and small towns outside of New York City, as well as some remote areas in Arkansas and Alabama. 

5G Exclusion Zones

“Exclusion zones” (or “buffer zones”), to which Verizon agreed with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), are apparent in Verizon’s 5G coverage map around major airports. Major airports and their grounds, such as New York’s LaGuardia, Chicago’s Midway and Dallas’ Love Field, appear to have 5G coverage. However, there are some exclusions in varying directions.

Check back often to 5Gstore! We will provide you with the most recent Verizon 5G coverage maps available, as well as the information you need to stay connected.

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Testing Verizon C-Band in New York City

Verizon’s new 5G network is live and PCMag just tested it out in New York City. In summary, C-Band made their connections about 50% faster, once they were able to find the signal. They also noted less congestion on the network, which is likely due to it still being so new. 

Starting this past Wednesday, Verizon launched its new form of 5G in 46 cities. AT&T did also, but only in eight cities. 

While PCMag reports the Verizon service being noticeably improved, it didn’t measure up to T-Mobile’s citywide “5G Ultra Capacity”— at least, not yet. T-Mobile currently has the most coverage in New York City and the best performance also in comparison to its competitors. 

Looking at reports from other cities, it seems that may not be the same as in New York City. Per PCMag’s report, “Redditors are busy posting spectacular C-Band speeds, including 859Mbps down in Los Angeles, 586Mbps outside Pittsburgh, and 413Mbps in Indianapolis.”

In order to test the C-Band, the PCMag team used the new Ookla WIND software. This is a carrier-grade package that runs on altered Samsung Galaxy S21+ phones. WIND’s Pro version, which the company supplied for testing, shows all the details of frequency band use you could ever need. It also lets testers build complex setups with voice, data, text, and video tests.

Verizon’s C-Band was a little hard to find during the New York tests. They ended up being able to use C-Band only on sites in two cities – Forest Hills and Kew Gardens. In other locations like East Harlem, their phone had refused to connect to C-Band, despite Ookla having identified the location as having C-Band available. It’s possible that some connections are being blocked by the carrier, or perhaps something to do with technical interference.

PCMag also addressed the “exclusion zones” that carriers agreed to with the FAA. Some of the exclusion zones are around JFK and LaGuardia airports. These are some of the busiest airports among a part of the city that is populated by about 2.3 million people. This is the same case for areas like Chicago, Dallas, and San Diego. Folks here unfortunately don’t have the benefits of the new 5G because of interference risks with aircraft altimeters. 

Per Verizon, the exclusion zones are a rectangle 2 miles long extending from the end of each airport runway. In one case during the tests, they were unable to find C-Band in an arc spanning from 4 miles southeast to 3 miles southwest of the end of the LaGuardia runway. That area covers many of Queens’ densest neighborhoods. Unexpectedly, though, they found more millimeter-wave in the exclusion zone than they expected to. 

“While the super-fast, short-range technology didn’t blanket the area, it kept popping up here and there throughout Long Island City, Astoria, Sunnyside, and Elmhurst, giving a huge boost when I could find it,” the article reads. 

They continued, “I can’t tell if Verizon’s avoidance of neighborhoods closer to LaGuardia is about the exclusion zone, or just the vagaries of early network buildouts. But we can confirm that while there’s no C-Band coverage within 2 miles of the airport, there is definitely coverage between 3-4 miles away.”

So just how fast is 5G? 

PCMag’s tests shows the in most cases, the C-Band service was double the speeds of LTE. This is because 5G was made more efficient and spread across multiple airwaves, making it able to provide more speed with less congestion on the networks. 

The article explained this more technically. “C-Band roughly doubles the airwaves Verizon had available for use in our tests. In most of our tests, Verizon used 40-50MHz of 4G LTE spectrum. When its “nationwide” 5G was active, it added 10MHz of low-band 5G to that. C-Band trades out that 10Hz of low-band 5G for 60MHz of mid-band, resulting in 100-110MHz being used.”

In comparison to tests run with T-Mobile, Verizon was just a little less. T-Mobile generally used 40MHz of 4G LTE along with 80MHz of mid-band 5G, for a total of 120MHz.

Tests were split between the carriers’ 4G and 5G components. PCMag found that in T-Mobile’s tests, 75% of the speed came from 5G, while in Verizon’s tests, 45-55% came from 5G. They also noticed that for some unknown reason, “each megahertz of Verizon’s was slower than a megahertz of T-Mobile’s—something the bigger carrier is surely working on optimizing.”

They also discovered something rather odd. “A bunch of our C-Band results in Kew Gardens all congregated around 140Mbps down in a way that makes me think it was a configuration issue or cap, not the capability of the network.”

What about the reach of the C-Band service?

The tests performed by the PCMag team have already shown T-Mobile is faster than Verizon on their mid-band spectrums – T-Mobile at its 2.5GHz frequency and Verizon at the higher C-Band spectrum.   The real question now is, which carrier delivers more range? PCMag says, “But the fact is, urban networks in places like New York, Chicago, and Dallas are dense enough that the difference may not matter.”

The case in Queens, for example, Verizon’s network is so dense that sites don’t have to broadcast very high to be received. It’s the same for T-Mobile here, whose extremely dense network in Queens has sites that are often a quarter-mile from each other or less.

From their findings, PCMag believes the jury is still out in the battle of mid-band distance. Though it is clear that C-Band has enough reach so that carriers won’t need to put a site every few blocks. 

Do I need C-Band now?While C-Band is available now, it can only get better as Verizon continues to roll out service. “In many other cities, it appears to already be better; my experience in Queens looks like the low end of the C-Band experience,” said the author of the article. They added, “The C-Band boost will come primarily to places within half a mile to a mile of a Verizon cell site, so look up your location on cellmapper.net if you’re curious. It’ll also require a recent phone.”

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5G rollout continues today, despite FAA concerns

Today is finally the day that Verizon is rolling out their 5G Ultra Wideband (5G UWB) network. Buffer zones around 50 airports have been enabled in preparation. This comes after much back and forth consulting, and arguing, between the FAA, the FCC, AT&T, and Verizon. 

While things seem to have settled down between the companies, tensions at airports are quite high as some flights are being delayed or canceled with fear of potential risks. This is because of the closeness between the frequencies 5G is running on – what’s called the C-Band spectrum – and the frequencies used in aircrafts. There have been concerns of interference risks with aircraft landing tools – specifically the airplane’s altimeter, which helps the pilot verify distance between the plane and the ground. This is mainly beneficial in situations where the weather is poor and tools are needed to help the pilots land safely. 

AT&T, who also agreed to delay and limit their 5G rollout, on the same C-Band spectrum, commented recently. 

“At our sole discretion we have voluntarily agreed to temporarily defer turning on a limited number of towers around certain airport runways as we continue to work with the aviation industry and the FAA to provide further information about our 5G deployment,” AT&T said in a statement Tuesday.

Verizon followed AT&T saying, “We have voluntarily decided to limit our 5G network around airports. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and our nation’s airlines have not been able to fully resolve navigating 5G around airports, despite it being safe and fully operational in more than 40 other countries.”

CEOs from American, United, Delta and seven other major carriers also warned of “significant” disruptions in the country’s aviation system if the 5G rollout continued as planned.

In a letter, U.S. airline leaders wrote to government officials Monday asking that the wireless carriers not deploy 5G within two miles of runways at certain airports.

“This will allow 5G to be deployed while avoiding harmful impacts on the aviation industry, traveling public, supply chain, vaccine distribution, our workforce and broader economy,” the CEOs wrote.

The FAA warned pilots won’t be able to use radio altimeters to land at 88 airports closest to Verizon and AT&T’s 5G towers. Earlier this month, the FAA and wireless carriers agreed to implement “buffer zones” around 50 airports across the country to try to mitigate the issue.

Airline officials, however, said this is not enough. United Airlines said the current plan will have “devastating” impacts on its operation, impacting an estimated 1.25 million of the carrier’s passengers and at least 15,000 flights.

“We won’t compromise on safety – full stop,” United said in a statement.

Captain Dennis Tajer, an American Airlines 737 pilot and a spokesperson for the Allied Pilots Association, also called the rollout “unsafe.”

“We’re not going to fly the airplane unless it’s safe,” Tajer told ABC News. “But putting that added distraction of other systems going wrong close to the ground is not the way you run a safety culture.”

AT&T and Verizon have been touting that the 5G C-Band spectrum has been proven safe in about 40 other countries. However, what is generally missed, is the fact that the power of the 5G signals in these other countries is much lower than what we have planned here in the United States. With this increased power and unknowns surrounding how aircrafts will be affected, it’s clear why the FAA is so concerned. 

In a statement, AT&T made clear its frustration with the federal government, writing in part: “We are frustrated by the FAA’s inability to do what nearly 40 countries have done, which is to safely deploy 5G technology without disrupting aviation services, and we urge it do so in a timely manner. We are launching our advanced 5G services everywhere else as planned with the temporary exception of this limited number of towers.”

When asked why the FAA did not act over the past two years, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said, “There will be lots of time to look back and see how we got here. And I know many of you will do that. And, of course, that is understandable. But right now, over the next 24, or less than 24 hours, what we’re focused on is trying to come to a solution that will minimize travel — you know disruptions to passenger travel, cargo operations — on our economic recovery.”

President Biden thanked Verizon and AT&T for the delay, saying in a statement, “This agreement will avoid potentially devastating disruptions to passenger travel, cargo operations, and our economic recovery, while allowing more than 90 percent of wireless tower deployment to occur as scheduled.”

The president said the agreement “protects flight safety and allows aviation operations to continue without significant disruption and will bring more high-speed internet options to millions of Americans.”

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