Verizon trialling fixed wireless 5G in 11 US areas by June 2017

"The largest proving ground in the world" for faster data, says telco

Telco Verizon is trialling fixed wireless 5G in 11 US locations, with hopes all will be up and running by the end of June 2017.

Verizon is calling it "the largest proving ground in the world" for 5G technology.
The trial is an attempt to help define specification standards for future mass-rollout, and is based on Verizon's 5G Technology Forum (5GTF) arrangement, which is essentially a tie-up with tech vendors including Cisco, Ericsson, Intel, Qualomm and Samsung.

It's due to be set up in Ann Arbor - Michigan, Atlanta - Georgia, Bernardsville - New Jersey, Brockton - Massachusetts, Dallas and Houston - Texas, Denver - Colorado, Miama - Florida, Sacramento - California, Seattle - Washington and Washington DC.

Verizon has remained cagey about the nature of customers who will be able to access the fixed wireless 5G - which true to its name, will operate in a restrictive, focused way between two set locations without the need for local phone services - and has only said "select customers" will benefit.

The setup is expected to use the 28GHz and 39GHz spectrum bands, none of which - interestingly - currently fit OFCOM's investigations into suitable bands for the UK.

AT&T is gearing up to testing on similar spectrum bands in its own trials on similar bands, in a setup that Verizon calls "immediately implementable" for use.

AT&T is expecting speeds of 1Gb/s for its own 5G trial, but Verizon is making no such estimates or claims for the "several hundred cell sites that cover several thousand customer locations" it is going to lay down.

Computing recently ran an analysis questioning the UK-based vendor ambitions of 5G and associated sales and marketing pitches, largely discovering that hype and rhetoric rarely matches a reality still plagued by disagreement on standards and spectra, cost of infrastructure of equipment, and a debate about whether the speed and capacity boosts of a workable 5G service in the UK would be worth the huge amount of effort to put it in place.

Perhaps - spectrum differences aside - Verizon's tests will start to lay some facts on top of the sales spiel.

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