The rollout of 5G networks across the US has been a bit more complicated than previous cellular technologies. While this is primarily due to the wider range of frequencies used by 5G networks, mobile operators have added to the confusion by treating us to a complicated array of terms such as 5G Plus, 5G Nationwide, 5G Ultra Wideband, 5G Ultra Capacity and 5G Extended Range.
With so many different terms, it can be difficult to understand what it all means – especially when carriers have unique names for similar types of 5G services. Nowhere has this been more evident lately than with Verizon, which has introduced its 5G services somewhat differently than others. The operator has now settled on two broad terms to describe its 5G coverage: 5G Nationwide and 5G Ultra Wideband. But what exactly does that mean and how did we get here?
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Verizon’s original 5G network
When Verizon began rolling out its 5G service, it took the unique approach of focusing exclusively on extremely high frequency (EHF) millimeter wave (mmWave). Frequencies in this band are well above anything typically used by cellular and Wi-Fi networks; that’s in the 28GHz range for Verizon’s 5G network.
Using mmWave, Verizon boasted incredibly high speeds on its network, easily reaching 1 Gbps and reaching 4 Gbps under ideal conditions. In early 2020, Verizon was the fastest 5G carrier on the planet, with an OpenSignal report showing average 5G download speeds of 506 Mbps — double that of its second-place competitor, South Korea’s LG U+. Today, this level of Verizon’s 5G coverage is known as 5G Ultra Wideband.
OpenSignal
The only problem is that mmWave can be fast, but it also has an extremely short range — a single mmWave transceiver can only cover an area the size of a city block. As a result, Verizon’s 5G service was only available to about 1% of its customers: those who lived or worked in large urban centers like downtown Chicago. Verizon customers in the rest of the US never saw the 5G symbol appear on their phone’s status bar.
Verizon is going “nationwide” with 5G
This limited range has been a problem for Verizon, especially since its rivals haven’t stood still. By the summer of 2020, T-Mobile boasted 5G coverage in all 50 US states — including Alaska — and AT&T wasn’t far behind. Those networks may have been slower than Verizon’s ultrafast mmWave service, but at least those carriers’ customers saw the coveted 5G icon light up on their phones.
Verizon had to do something to catch up; the answer was its nationwide 5G network. In the fall of 2020, the carrier made a big splash when Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg took the stage during Apple’s iPhone 12 unveiling to announce that its 5G Nationwide network would bring 5G to the other 99% of its customers.
Apple
Of course, Vestberg didn’t say it so openly. Instead, he said “5G has just become real” thanks to wider coverage. The new 5G Nationwide network has promised coverage for another 200 million people in more than 1,800 towns and cities.
Before that, Verizon’s 5G network didn’t have a unique name; it was only Verizon’s 5G service. After the carrier turned on its 5G Nationwide service, it became necessary to differentiate it from the much faster mmWave service. Thus the 5G Ultra Wideband service was born, along with a new “5G UW” (or “5G UWB”) icon to let users know when they’re on the operator’s fastest network.
Verizon
The trick to getting 5G coverage across the country was that Verizon had to land on a completely different set of frequencies. With the limited range of high-band mmWave spectrum, Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband network would require hundreds of thousands of transceivers to offer the same coverage. According to a 2017 Qualcomm research paper, providing a square kilometer of reliable mmWave 5G coverage in a densely populated city requires approximately 130 mmWave transceivers. Based on those numbers, covering just 95% of New York City would require nearly 60,000 individual mmWave towers.
Challenges of low-band 5G
Since mmWave wasn’t going to cut it for national rollout, Verizon had to take a different approach. With few other options available, the operator had to use the same low-band frequencies occupied by its existing 4G/LTE service. Dropping the 5G signal to 850MHz allowed Verizon to provide expansive 5G coverage – at the cost of real 5G performance.
The first problem is that low-band frequencies are the slowest anyway. That’s how simple the laws of physics work. However, Verizon faced another challenge. 4G/LTE signals already traveled those waves, meaning Verizon’s new 5G Nationwide service had to share the road with a significant amount of slower traffic.
Mavenir
Fortunately, a technology known as Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) was created as part of the 5G specification to make this possible. Unfortunately, DSS makes 5G traffic a second-class citizen in the 4G/LTE airwaves. Since 4G/LTE doesn’t have an equivalent feature, it doesn’t know how to share, so 5G traffic is sandwiched between 4G signals.
If you’ve ever wondered why your 5G smartphone never performed better than your old 4G/LTE, this is why. That was especially true for Verizon customers, who until recently were much more likely to use the carrier’s 5G Nationwide network than its 5G Ultra Wideband service.
Thanks to DSS, performance on Verizon’s early 5G Nationwide network was so poor that PCMag’s Sascha Segan told iPhone users on Verizon to turn off 5G altogether after several tests revealed it was slower than 4G in major cities like New York and Chicago .
C-belt to the rescue
While Verizon is working to improve the performance of its low-band 5G Nationwide network, there isn’t much it can do. The nature of DSS means that as long as most users continue to have 4G/LTE devices, 5G signals will have to settle elsewhere on those frequencies. Things will improve organically as more people switch to 5G devices, but it won’t happen overnight.
Fortunately, a much more significant improvement came to Verizon’s 5G network earlier this year when the carrier deployed a mid-range portion of the C-band spectrum. Located in the 3.7 to 3.98 GHz range, these frequencies are not only free from the dominant 4G/LTE traffic, but offer better performance than the 850 MHz low-band frequencies and significantly better range than the 28 GHz mmwave spectrum.
Dish Wireless
This spectrum has effectively become the sweet spot for 5G rollouts, and it’s not hard to see why Verizon dropped a record $45 billion in a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) auction to buy it last year. After a dispute with the airline industry, the carrier turned on new spectrum in January. The result has been remarkable performance improvements for many clients.
Verizon has incorporated the new C-band spectrum into its 5G Ultra Wideband network, so it’s not technically an upgrade to its 5G Nationwide service. However, the extension means you’re less likely to find yourself on a slower national service unless you’re commuting or live in a rural area.
Competitive 5G environment
Verizon is not alone in separating its 5G networks, but it is the most aggressive of all when it comes to promoting the differences between its 5G Nationwide and 5G Ultra Wideband. That’s probably because Verizon is also unique in charging extra for its fastest 5G service. Unless you’re on one of the carrier’s premium 5G Do More, Play More, or Get More plans, you’ll be limited to low-band 5G Nationwide service even if you’re standing right next to an mmWave transceiver in downtown Chicago and could technically use 5G Ultra Wideband.
AT&T and T-Mobile also have their own names for different levels of 5G service. AT&T simply calls its standard network “5G” and uses the name 5G Plus (5G+) for its mmWave network. AT&T’s 5G is a low-bandwidth service similar to Verizon’s 5G Nationwide, with many of the same challenges. 5G Plus is a similar combination of mmWave and C-band to Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband service, although AT&T has limited mmWave to dense areas like stadiums and airports, and C-band has only been rolled out in about eight cities.
AT&T also has a “5GE” network, but this is nothing more than a marketing ploy where the carrier tried to convince customers that its advanced 4G/LTE network is actually an “evolution” to 5G. 5GE is not 5G at all; it’s just a deceptive icon for AT&T’s best 4G/LTE service.
Adam Doud/Digital Trends
T-Mobile has taken a completely different approach to rolling out its 5G network. While the Un-carrier has some mmWave spectrum, it doesn’t say much about it since it’s mostly there to supplement the rest of its network, improving service in densely populated areas like stadiums that need extra capacity. Instead, T-Mobile began rolling out 5G, focusing on broad coverage through a low-band “standalone” 5G network using the 600MHz spectrum. Although these low frequencies were the slowest of all, they were without 4G/LTE traffic. This means that T-Mobile’s low-bandwidth 5G network did not have to rely on DSS. This is what the operator is now calling its extended range 5G network.
T-Mobile had another ace up its sleeve. By merging with Sprint, T-Mobile acquired licenses for a significant portion of the 2.5 GHz spectrum. Sprint used this for its 4G/LTE network, but T-Mobile quickly decommissioned those towers to free them up for 5G, giving it a significant advantage over its competitors. This became T-Mobile’s 5G Ultra Capacity network. As a mid-band network, it’s roughly equivalent to Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband and AT&T’s 5G Plus.
State of 5G Nationwide and 5G Ultra Wideband in 2022
While Verizon is far better than it was at the end of 2021, the carrier has a lot of work to do if it wants to catch up to T-Mobile. Ookla’s July 2022 market report shows that T-Mobile still holds the lead in 5G performance and reliability, ranking first in 45 states and coming in with nearly twice the average download speed across all segments.
Since these tests measure average download speeds across all carrier service levels, they mainly show how low-bandwidth networks are holding back 5G. Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband network has proven to be quite capable, but unfortunately too many of its customers remain on the much slower 5G Nationwide network — either because they’re not yet covered by the 5G Ultra Wideband network or because they’re unwilling to pay more for a premium plan. That’s not a problem T-Mobile customers face, as even entry-level 5G plans include access to the carrier’s faster and more expansive 5G Ultra Capacity network.
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Source: newstars.edu.vn