Verizon 5G goes live in parts of Miami and five other cities
The carrier is rushing to meet its end-of-year coverage goal.
If it wasn't already clear that Verizon (Engadget's parent company) is in a rush to meet its 5G coverage goals, it is now. The carrier has switched on 5G in parts of six cities, including Miami, Salt Lake City, Charlotte, Grand Rapids, Greensboro and Spokane. As with earlier deployments, though, you shouldn't expect far-reaching access. Miami's access, for example, is limited to parts of downtown along Biscayne Boulevard as well as landmarks like American Airlines Arena, Hard Rock Stadium and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
Other rollouts tend to focus on sports arenas, schools, hospitals and airports.
Combined with a rollout to Memphis on December 19th, this launch gives Verizon 28 cities with at least a basic level of 5G, and just two more cities left before it reaches its target. This isn't what we'd call comprehensive service, though. Again, the limited range and sensitivity of Verizon's ultra wideband 5G prevents the company from expanding coverage as rapidly as it could for LTE -- and it'll still have problems indoors even when there's truly nationwide access. This is an important milestone, but it's one step in a much larger process that will include more resilient lower-band 5G.
