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The trend toward faster next-generation wireless networks grew on Monday, when Verizon opened a commercial service for a mainstream consumer 5G Internet service in some cities in four cities. But the wireless sector still has a long way to go, with national coverage and services for mobile devices and major commercial uses in a few years.
Verizon launched its new 5G Broadband Internet service at $ 70 a month by hiring customers in Sacramento, Houston, Los Angeles and Indianapolis. Customers who already subscribe to Verizon Wireless for phones only pay $ 50 for this service. With promised speeds of 300 megabits per second and the ability to reach 1 gigabit per second in some areas, 5G wireless service is designed to compete with the fastest wired home Internet offerings of cable and telecom companies. At 1 Gbps, a customer can download a high definition movie in less than a minute.
But for the service to be able to be used by customers at this time, Verizon had to use equipment that did not meet the industry's latest standards for 5G. Some competitors are waiting for compatible equipment and Verizon has already promised to replace the non-standard routers of their customers. The service is not mobile either, as the first 5G compatible smartphones will not be released until next year and Verizon is just starting to upgrade its wireless networks nationwide.
"We're not just waiting for the future, we're building it," said Ronan Dunne, Verizon Wireless Manager. Fortune on the decision to go ahead with non standard gear. By initiating previous trials, Verizon helped inform and expedite the deliberations of the groups that set the standards, he said. "5G is such a big deal, we should really get together and speed up the market for 5G … Today, at the global level, the industry is ahead of where it would have been otherwise."
The wireless industry could take advantage of a new momentum. Revenue growth has slowed in recent years, due to smartphone saturation and aggressive price reductions compared to new unlimited data plans. Verizon and rivals AT & T, T-Mobile and Sprint hope that 5G will not only offer the same old services at higher speeds, but will also open up new business opportunities, such as the game of Internet home connections. The Verizon (vz) share price rose less than 5% this year, and AT & T (t) shares lost 10%, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 9%. T-Mobile (tmus), which is trying to merge with Sprint (s) in part to accelerate its 5G efforts, has grown 10% and Sprint has gained 11%.
Apple, Samsung and most other major brands have not yet announced their offer of 5G compatible phones. The Motorola unit of Lenovo has launched in August a new 4G phone called Moto Z3, which can move to 5G with an additional pack next year.
Like AT & T, Verizon also plans to create a multitude of smaller cloud computing centers on its network. In combination with 5G, the most geographically dispersed group of data centers will be able to support some of the computing features currently included in smartphones. This will allow a new generation of much cheaper phones that use data centers for the computing power needed to run applications and games.
"The cost of the device could be a tenth of what would otherwise be the case," Dunne said.
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