Verizon promises to bring 5G to 30 cities by end of 2019

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5G
The Galaxy S10 5G is one of the only 5G-ready phones announced.
Photo: Samsung

The 5G future is finally going to start rolling out to Verizon customers later this year, but only if you live in one of the 30 cities tapped to get the super-fast mobile data speeds.

During a call with investors this morning, Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg revealed that Verizon’s deployment of 5G technology is nearly ready. And this time, it’s going to be real 5G.

Verizon rolled out limited 5G networks in 2018 to houses. Those “5G networks” were really just replacements for home or office broadband but didn’t use the super-fast millimeter wave radios that are needed for real 5G networks to become a thing.

Verizon dives into 5G

Starting later this year, Verizon will deploy the next-gen wireless technology in 30 cities. A list of cities wasn’t given and the carrier hasn’t said how thoroughly 5G would be deployed. Still, it’s better than nothing.

“It’s just gonna be a total different experience in speed and throughput than you have ever seen before,” said Vestberg during his meeting.

Verizon doesn’t have much time to waste. It is the official launch partner of Samsung’s S10 5G that is promised to launch during the first half of 2019. Deploying 5G technology across the country will certainly take a few years to have a considerable impact.

There are only a few phones that can even take advantage of 5G right now so you can see the carriers aren’t in a huge rush to spend millions to support it. Apple isn’t expected to release an iPhone with 5G until late 2020.

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