Verizon fired up its important C-Band 5G network last week under its 5G Ultra Wideband class of 5G. In doing so, they told us that 100 million people would now have access in some 1,700 cities to a much better network experience. Unfortunately, they kicked off the launch without an updated 5G coverage map that would show us exactly where this shiny new 5G could be found. This week, they gave us one.
The new Verizon 5G map now shows large areas of their darkest, brightest red to note that it is covered with 5G Ultra Wideband. Previously, areas like my city (Portland, OR) had no 5G UW coverage. As you can see below, Portland and the surrounding areas have all sorts of bright red 5G Ultra Wideband areas today. Up until the past couple of weeks, you had to drive out east of Portland into Gresham to get any of Verizon’s 5G UW, and that wasn’t of the C-Band variety.
Of course, this map could simply be showing where Verizon is planning to launch their new C-Band 5G, so if you are running around your city in neighborhoods with this red color and not getting a big boost in download speeds, that could be why. Also, you would need one of these 5G devices to connect to it.
Not seeing big blotches of bright red? Verizon said that 1,700 cities, with an emphasis on the cities part. However, I’m not sure what they consider a city, as a decent-sized city like Spokane, Washington is not showing any C-Band activity just yet. You’ll have to plug-in your own address to see what coverage is expected to be like in your area of the US.
To check out Verizon’s new 5G map, you’ll hit this link.
Anyone seeing greatly improved 5G coverage? How has your network experience been over the past week?