News
The US is among a host of countries bidding to be the first to launch commercial 5G mobile services next month
US telco, Verizon, has announced that it will launch 5G mobile network services next month in the northern cities of Chicago and Minneapolis.
Existing Verizon customers in the two US cities will be able to upgrade to 5G services by paying a $10 per month premium on top of their current subscription plans. The services will be launched on the 11th of April 2019.
With a paucity of 5G compatible handsets currently available in the us, Verizon has said that its customers will require a Motorola Z3 mobile phone along with a device called 5G moto mod, in order to connect to its 5G networks. The device will be available to all Verizon customers for an initial charge of $50.
Verizon launched its fixed wireless access, 5G home device in October 2018 in the cities of Los Angeles, Houston, Indianapolis and Sacramento.
The US is expected to launch 5G at scale later in 2019, with Verizon and AT&T committing to 2019 deployment, and Sprint and T-Mobile aiming for the first quarter of 2020 to begin their rollout.
Also in the news:
5G smartphone handsets arrive en masse in Barcelona
5G fanfare – An MWC 2019 round up
Ericsson: 2019 is the year that we turn on 5G across the world
