You’ve probably noticed that there’s a lot more hype surrounding 5G than any of the wireless technologies that came before it. Some of it is just marketing, of course; we live in an increasingly connected era and there are many more people carrying smartphones now than in 2012 when 4G/LTE was just starting to become mainstream. However, it’s also no exaggeration to say that with significantly higher speeds and the ability to handle many more devices, 5G is a much bigger step into the next phase of global connectivity. You probably noticed this yourself with the “5G UW” icon on the top of your phone.
As with most new technologies, 5G comes with some new challenges for both operators and consumers. One of the most significant of these was finding the best way to deploy 5G services across a much wider range of frequencies that it can operate on. This was not nearly as significant a problem in the days of 3G and 4G/LTE services, which all operated in a much narrower range of radio spectrum.
Verizon
The quality and performance of your 5G service is closely related to the frequencies your operator uses. Higher frequencies offer the best 5G speeds, but they don’t travel as far, so carriers have to mix things up a bit to give the best 5G coverage to the most people with the fewest towers. Each operator also often needs to acquire licenses before they can expand 5G services to some of these new frequencies. It’s all a balancing act that can be as much art as science.
Over the past few years, as 5G has gradually moved into the mainstream, operators have competed to acquire the most valuable pieces of this electromagnetic real estate to gain an edge over their competitors. While they are looking into this new territory and expanding into those frequency bands where they can offer faster 5G services, they also want to make sure their customers know their 5G is the best 5G. Here’s an overview of how it all works — specifically, 5G Ultra Wideband and what the 5G UW icon is on your phone really resources.
How 5G Ultra Wideband Began
Apple
This supremacy game has naturally led operators to use fancier marketing names to convince customers that their 5G is the best 5G. AT&T tried to get a leg up on its 5G branding by introducing its misleading “5G Evolution” network — a rebranding of the same advanced LTE technology offered by other carriers. However, no matter what your smartphone tells you, the “5G E” icon doesn’t mean you’re on a 5G network.
Fortunately, the 5G E was an exception. However, it opened the door for carriers to realize that they could offer unique branding for their 5G services and dress up the 5G phone icon to let customers know when they have better 5G service than standard.
Verizon was the first carrier to do this on a large scale. Its initial 5G network used extremely high frequency (EHF) — and extremely short range — millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrum. Verizon rolled it out in several major urban centers, but a lack of range meant that 99 percent of its customers didn’t see the 5G icon at all.
That changed in 2020 when Apple invited Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg to share the stage at the iPhone 12 launch event. While Apple launched its first 5G-enabled iPhone, Verizon took the opportunity to announce its new 5G Nationwide network, bringing 5G service to a much larger number of its users.
However, the 5G Nationwide network is built on low-band spectrum below 6 GHz. That meant it was an order of magnitude slower than Verizon’s ultra-fast mmWave network. So to help differentiate these two very different classes of 5G service, Verizon has coined a new name for its much faster mmWave service: 5G Ultra Wideband.
Ultra Broadband vs 5G Ultra Broadband
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To be clear, 5G Ultra Wideband is strictly a marketing name used by Verizon. It has nothing to do with ultra-wideband (UWB) radio technology, which is used by devices like Apple’s AirTag and Samsung’s Galaxy SmartTag.
This is an important distinction since several smartphones include ultra-wideband radios. This has nothing to do with 5G, nor does it mean the phone is 5G capable. For example, Apple introduced UWB with the iPhone 11 in 2019, but 5G didn’t arrive until the iPhone 12 arrived a year later. AirTags and SmartTags also do not communicate over the 5G network.
By definition, ultra-wideband is a radio technology that uses a wide spectrum of frequencies (wideband), but operates at a very low power level in a minimal range — much shorter than even the worst mmWave transceivers. This makes it ideal for the kind of precision tracking offered by AirTags and highly accurate interior mapping. It is also an excellent replacement for Near Field Communications (NFC) technology in applications such as digital car keys.
5G Ultra Wideband is not that at all; Verizon chose that name probably because it sounded like a cool way to promote its fastest 5G services.
So what is 5G Ultra Wideband?
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Confusing terminology aside, Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband is the carrier’s name for its fastest, highest-capacity 5G service. If you’re a Verizon customer, you’ll know when you’re on this network by a clear 5G icon that displays additional characters like “UW” or “UWB.”
Initially, this only applied to Verizon’s tiny mmWave network. At that time, the appearance of the “5G UW” indicator was like panning for gold. Even in cities where Verizon offered 5G Ultra Wideband coverage, the very short range of mmWave frequencies meant it was usually limited to the city core. Even if you did manage to find 5G UW coverage, it wasn’t hard to wander out of it since a single mmWave transceiver doesn’t cover much more than an average city block or two.
Meanwhile, Verizon customers who couldn’t get the coveted 5G UW icon to light up remained on the carrier’s 5G Nationwide network, which used the same low-band spectrum as its 4G/LTE service — and delivered about the same performance.
The magic of the C-belt
Dish Wireless
Fortunately for Verizon and its customers, this changed for the better when the carrier was finally able to roll out its new mid-range spectrum. After paying $45 billion in a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) auction to pick up some of the C-band frequencies (and months of wrangling with the airline industry), Verizon finally turned the key on new spectrum in January.
The carrier has made this new spectrum part of its 5G Ultra Wideband network. A lot more customers started seeing the “5G UW” icon on their phones, and it wasn’t just window dressing; have also started to experience real 5G speeds.
Specifically, Verizon said that its C-band rollout has enabled the expansion of its 5G Ultra Wideband network to more than 100 million people in more than 1,700 cities. It is the most extensive and ambitious presentation of the midrange to date. Rival AT&T, which lost $23 billion in the same auction, takes a more conservative approach, covering fewer than a dozen cities.
This midrange spectrum has become the sweet spot for 5G as it offers the best balance of range and performance. Low-band frequencies travel much farther — which is why Verizon still uses this spectrum for its 5G Nationwide network — but they can’t carry as much data. They also have to share the airwaves with older 4G/LTE services, which slows things down even more.
On the other side of the spectrum, mmWave provides phenomenal download speeds and enough capacity to handle hundreds of devices, but the range is huge. This makes mmWave great for very dense areas like stadiums and airports, but as Verizon learned the hard way, it’s not so great when used as the foundation of a 5G network.
5G UW vs 5G UC vs 5G Plus
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Thanks to the recent introduction of C-band, Verizon is in good shape to continue building and promoting its 5G Ultra Wideband network, but it still has a lot of work to do.
T-Mobile had a big advantage in its 5G deployment because it didn’t have to wait for the C-band auction. The un-carrier inherited a nice piece of 2.5 GHz turf in its 2020 merger with Sprint. It quickly began decommissioning older 4G/LTE Sprint towers to make this spectrum available for its 5G rollout.
T-Mobile calls this its 5G Ultra Capacity network. Like Verizon, T-Mobile customers get a special icon — in this case “5G UC” — that lets them know when they’re using it. However, even though the 5G UC indicator didn’t appear until late 2021, T-Mobile’s 5G Ultra Capacity network had already rolled out to more than 200 million Americans by that point — four months before Verizon could even turn on its first C-band tower.
On the other hand, AT&T has been slower to take advantage of the new C-band spectrum, but it seems clear that it is playing the long game. AT&T has some mmWave coverage in densely populated areas like stadiums and parks, which it calls its 5G Plus (5G+) network, and this year that network got eight cities where the carrier rolled out its C-band service. However, most AT&T customers won’t see the 5G+ icon on their phones yet.
Photo by Shoval Zonnis/ Pexels
Verizon put all its chips on the table to acquire the most controversial spectrum on the block and faced some challenges with the decision. For example, at least 50 US airports have been designated exclusion zones where Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband network will not be available due to potential interference with aircraft instruments.
AT&T took a more cautious approach, hedging its bets so it could pick up some less controversial mid-spectrum in the next auction. It plans to start rolling out that spectrum later this year, and like T-Mobile, it will be able to use it in places where Verizon and its 5G Ultra Wideband brand can’t tread.
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Source: newstars.edu.vn