Verizon Wireless now covers more than 175 million people with its ‘5G Ultra Wideband’ service, and expects to offer nationwide coverage by Q1 2023. The telco notes that its ongoing C-band rollout is a full 13 months ahead of the original schedule (i.e. 175 million people covered by end-2023). In addition to providing greater coverage in rural and suburban areas, Verizon says it will also enhance capacity by activating 100MHz of C-band spectrum in many markets, compared to the 60MHz of spectrum available when deployment first began. Once all of its licensed spectrum is made available, Verizon expects to have up to 200MHz of C-band spectrum deployed in many markets. Hans Vestberg, chairman and CEO of Verizon, commented: ‘Our customers don’t stand still and neither does our network. Today, more than one out of every two Americans now have access to 5G Ultra Wideband.’
In other news, Verizon has reiterated that it is on course to shut down its legacy 3G network on 31 December 2022. Verizon is the last of the so-called ‘Big Three’ mobile operators in the US to shut down its 3G network. AT&T deactivated its 3G network on 22 February 2022, while T-Mobile US switched off its 3G network on 1 July 2022. TeleGeography notes that the CDMA2000 1xEV-DO network originally went live in October 2003. The cellco stopped activating 3G devices in the summer of 2018, but plans to switch off the network in December 2019 and December 2020 were postponed.
Source: https://www.commsupdate.com/articles/2022/12/06/verizon-ramps-up-5g-coverage-as-3g-shutdown-looms/