Verizon’s plan to cover 175 million people with C-band 5G by the end of the year is focused on the 46 existing economic areas the company is licensed to cover, which means those 46 regions are going to see complete coverage by the end of the year, Verizon’s VP of technology development and planning, Bill Stone, told PCMag after the company’s analyst day yesterday.
“It’s about getting to 175 million of the 191 million [people in the 46 regions],” Stone said.
Verizon’s big 5G expansion currently relies on its new mid-band, “C-band” airwaves. The satellite firms that formerly held them are required to release them in two bunches. The first group, 100MHz split 60/40 between Verizon and AT&T, is only available in 46 partial economic areas (PEAs). That includes most of the nation’s largest cities and surrounding rural areas, but not Denver, Washington D.C., or Atlanta, for instance.
You can see the 46 areas Verizon owns on Spectrum Omega’s interactive map by choosing “3.7GHz (C-Band)” and the “A1-Int” block. We also have a list of Verizon C-band phones.
The second set of zones, with more airwaves and the rest of the country, is required to be cleared by the end of 2023. But some analysts, such as Recon Analytics’ Roger Entner, have suggested Verizon will pay satellite companies to vacate the space early, as T-Mobile did with TV stations in its 600MHz spectrum.
The “top 46 or not” debate is extremely important because if Verizon sticks to its 46 areas, it’s seeking 92% population coverage (175/191) by the end of the year. But if it gets access to more metros this year by convincing satellite companies to clear the spectrum early, it could achieve its goals with less dense coverage.
Entner says Verizon will “soon” expand beyond its 46 PEAs, but Stone said the 175 million claim is based on the existing license areas.
“I can’t say anything about Denver and Atlanta. We are focused on the 60MHz in the top 46 PEAs and there’s no update about the possibility of early clearing,” Stone said.
The expansion to 175 million won’t happen in one big drop like the first 90 million did in January. Rather, it will happen “smoothly” over the year, Stone said.
Other regions will become available “at the end of 2023,” Stone said, but Verizon will be building in those other areas throughout 2023 to be able to launch them in 2024, he said.
“175 out of 191 [million] is getting close to completely done [for the first 46] and it’s not going to stop there. We’re planning to get to 250 million POPs by the end of 2024.”
Verizon can accomplish its ambitious goal in part because C-band coverage is going better than expected, Stone said. In denser areas, coverage is “roughly equivalent to what we get from AWS; the coverage is typically uplink-limited,” Stone said. That means the coverage is similar to Verizon’s existing Band 66 4G sites, which means C-band can be put on those existing sites and can duplicate coverage without much infill needed.
“We’re taking advantage of existing cell sites; the vast majority are modifications [rather than new sites],” he said.
In more rural areas, C-band downlink is paired with the long-range band 5 for uplink, and coverage is more restricted by the range of the C-band, Stone said.
Don’t Forget About mmWave
Short-range, high-speed millimeter wave also still plays a role in Verizon’s rollout, Stone said. The company will add “thousands” of millimeter wave nodes this year as it “very strategically” uses mmWave to address “high capacity areas,” Stone and Schulz said.
Schulz specifically called out stadiums and arenas, airports, and convention centers as millimeter-wave targets, saying that Verizon is also doing in-building millimeter-wave systems.
Repeaters can also fill in “the nooks and crannies… in a more cost-effective way,” Stone said. Last year we reported on Pivotal, a company that said it was working with Verizon on low-cost millimeter-wave repeaters. Stone wouldn’t confirm any specific names but said Verizon is working with several repeater vendors.
It’s important to note (because readers have asked) that consumers can’t buy their own mmWave repeaters. Unlike consumer repeaters, the repeaters Stone is talking about are part of a controlled network buildout.
Chipset and equipment shortages aren’t getting in the way of Verizon’s goals, Stone added. “We have complete confidence that we’ll have the equipment that we need for this year. The capital has been made available,” he said.
We’ll have more testing of Verizon’s expanded C-band network soon.
