Verizon’s “ultra-wideband”—also known as millimeter-wave, mmWave, or UWB (not the same as the UWB found in AirTags)—is the fastest form of 5G in the world. With speeds up to 3Gbps and latencies sometimes under 10 milliseconds, it could host genuine new applications that are beyond the capabilities of AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon’s “nationwide” low-band 5G, which has performance very similar to 4G.
This year, Verizon has undertaken a grand experiment: flipping the UWB 5G switch in beach towns from the Jersey Shore all the way down to Maryland. With people coming out of their COVID-induced isolation and flooding the beaches, it’s a good test of how much traffic a carrier should see on a busy day. Check out my recent visit in the video below.
In Long Branch, 5G Is Impressive But Fragile
Even without new applications, 5G’s additional capacity helps in places where the population really spikes sometimes. If you’ve ever had your phone show plenty of signal but not been able to make a connection because you’re in a crowd, that’s one of the things 5G deals with.
I wanted to surf the 5G waves myself, so I headed down to Long Branch, N.J., where I spent my time at Pier Village, a new development of shops and restaurants anchored by a hotel-resort called the Wave. Verizon’s coverage map doesn’t show any 5G in Long Branch as I’m writing this, but it’s there.
The local tower gave me about a 1,000-foot range with clear line of sight. That took in a big swath of boardwalk and beachfront. If all you want to cover is the beach, three poles per mile would cut it. But when I ducked behind a large building or stepped into a coffee shop, the signal was gone. That’s the challenge with millimeter-wave: The signal is so fragile that carriers need to specifically target buildings and areas they want to cover.
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When I was outdoors, Verizon 5G let me kick back and watch Apple’s WWDC in gorgeous sharpness on a new iPad Pro, followed by a multi-party Google Meet call with no stalls or bumps. A PowerPoint came down from the cloud like it was a local file. A 2.9GB game downloaded in less than a minute.
Looking up at the condo balconies above me, I realized that with 5G around, vacationers don’t need to worry about their landlord providing low-speed or high-priced internet connections. Throw a phone or hotspot on the balcony and you’ve got gigabits coming into your window via Wi-Fi (which will actually slow the connection down—Wi-Fi hotspots tend to max out around 600Mbps—but should still be comparable to what you’d get on good broadband at home).
Many Verizon plans deprioritize users once they have used a certain amount of data. It’s not quite a cap, but it can sometimes act like one and slow your data down a lot. However, that doesn’t happen on UWB. Your connection will be just as fast on day five of your beach holiday as it was on day one.
“5G gives you good Wi-Fi” doesn’t sound all that exciting, but more innovative new 5G apps just aren’t there yet. There’s a chicken-and-egg issue. Without the network, developers won’t create the apps, but without apps, consumers don’t see a reason to choose the network. Verizon giving its customers a taste of what mega-fast 5G can do could break that deadlock and encourage the app innovation 5G desperately needs.
5G Is the Future of Concerts
Masses of people recording, streaming, and uploading video can swamp a mid-band 5G network. That’s why UWB is so useful at music venues. Hoping to see it in action, I went down to Asbury Park. Asbury Park is the arts and entertainment hub of the northern Jersey Shore. It’s best known as the place where Bruce Springsteen got his start, in part at the Stone Pony Club by the boardwalk. Verizon’s UWB network reaches within a few blocks of the Stone Pony, and soon it will be all the way there, making a big difference to concertgoers who want to record and share their experiences.
The network does cover Cookman Avenue, a quirky, partially pedestrianized zone of indie bookstores and pubs. Future 5G applications could enhance the street life there. Imagine that Stone Pony show simulcast on a big projection screen in the middle of the street, or tablets and booths set up so you can have virtual drinks with far-away friends: truly hybrid online-offline living.
Telepresence, cloud gaming, 360-degree video and other 5G wonders may not happen this summer at the UWBeach. But getting the network out there, and the people out there, may spark some ideas and innovation that could help bring people together in new ways. That’s hot.
