Verizon CEO: No Home 5G Expansion Until Fall

If you’re hoping for Verizon’s 5G Home to bring a high-speed connection to your work-from-home world, it looks like you’re going to have to wait until the fourth quarter.

At a JPMorgan conference today, Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg said the Qualcomm chipsets needed for Verizon’s home modems won't be available until at least October, pushing the company's previous prediction of "the second half of 2020" toward the end of its window, as reported by .  

5G home internet via millimeter-wave offers cable- or fiber-like speeds without the costs of having to run fiber to each house.

Verizon has been saying it would roll out 5G home service since 2017, but it has only done so in fits and starts.

At the moment, the service is available in small areas of Chicago; Sacramento; Los Angeles; Houston; and Indianapolis.

Verizon uses millimeter-wave 5G, which has lots of bandwidth but extremely short range.

Because of the limits on millimeter-wave 5G antennas, the company says homes need a window with direct line of sight to a 5G panel, which dramatically limits availability.

According to BroadbandNow, about 42 million Americans do not have access to broadband internet.

That doesn't count the people who can't afford a connection because they only have one, high-priced local internet option.

Because it's mostly for dense cities and suburbs, Verizon's 5G home option will probably increase competition and affordability rather than offer connections to completely uncovered areas.

The company is waiting on customer modems, which use Qualcomm’s newer QTM527 antenna and can greatly improve millimeter-wave range by detecting extremely weak signals.

We saw the QTM527 last year; back in November, Inseego CEO Dan Mondor was telling us that it, too, was waiting on Qualcomm’s components to get rolling.

Verizon isn’t the only provider falling short on offering 5G as a home broadband solution.

Last November, US Cellular talked up the potential of 5G home broadband to us, but even in 5G coverage areas, the company’s home broadband plans still run over 4G – once again, apparently because of a lack of 5G home equipment.

Vestberg said Verizon is still on track to launch 5G Home in 10 cities by the end of 2020, Dano reports.

But it now looks like that may all come at the very end of the year.

If you’re hoping for Verizon’s 5G Home to bring a high-speed connection to your work-from-home world, it looks like you’re going to have to wait until the fourth quarter.

At a JPMorgan conference today, Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg said the Qualcomm chipsets needed for Verizon’s home modems won't be available until at least October, pushing the company's previous prediction of "the second half of 2020" toward the end of its window, as reported by .  

5G home internet via millimeter-wave offers cable- or fiber-like speeds without the costs of having to run fiber to each house.

Verizon has been saying it would roll out 5G home service since 2017, but it has only done so in fits and starts.

At the moment, the service is available in small areas of Chicago; Sacramento; Los Angeles; Houston; and Indianapolis.

Verizon uses millimeter-wave 5G, which has lots of bandwidth but extremely short range.

Because of the limits on millimeter-wave 5G antennas, the company says homes need a window with direct line of sight to a 5G panel, which dramatically limits availability.

According to BroadbandNow, about 42 million Americans do not have access to broadband internet.

That doesn't count the people who can't afford a connection because they only have one, high-priced local internet option.

Because it's mostly for dense cities and suburbs, Verizon's 5G home option will probably increase competition and affordability rather than offer connections to completely uncovered areas.

The company is waiting on customer modems, which use Qualcomm’s newer QTM527 antenna and can greatly improve millimeter-wave range by detecting extremely weak signals.

We saw the QTM527 last year; back in November, Inseego CEO Dan Mondor was telling us that it, too, was waiting on Qualcomm’s components to get rolling.

Verizon isn’t the only provider falling short on offering 5G as a home broadband solution.

Last November, US Cellular talked up the potential of 5G home broadband to us, but even in 5G coverage areas, the company’s home broadband plans still run over 4G – once again, apparently because of a lack of 5G home equipment.

Vestberg said Verizon is still on track to launch 5G Home in 10 cities by the end of 2020, Dano reports.

But it now looks like that may all come at the very end of the year.