Offers promotional pricing; pre-order for Samsung Galaxy S10 5G starts April 25
Following on the launch of commercial mobile 5G services based off the 5G New Radio standard in Chicago and Minneapolis earlier this month, Verizon today named an additional 25 cities where it will make the next-gen cellular service available this year.
And the cities are: Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dallas, Des Moines, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Little Rock, Memphis, Phoenix, Providence, San Diego, Salt Lake City and Washington D.C.
Verizon initially launched a fixed wireless 5G service in four markets based off of its Verizon Technical Forum standard in Houston. All of its 5G deployments use millimeter wave spectrum.
Earlier this week on an earnings call, Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg said that the carrier is continuing to prioritize its 5G roll-out in “cities that have made it easy to build there.”
Vestberg also said that the company is anticipating the use of dynamic spectrum sharing as part of its 5G strategy — so that specific spectrum bands do not have to be allocated to specific technology generations, as has typically been the case in wireless technology. He said that the technology won’t be available until next year and that Verizon is in early conversations with chipset and equipment vendors, but added that “all spectrum will be exposed to dynamic spectrum sharing over time.”
Currently Verizon has device support via Motorola’s moto z3, which requires a clip-on “mod” to connect to the high-band spectrum.
With the announcement of the 20 additional 5G cities, Verizon also detailed its plans to offer Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S10 5G. Pre-orders are set to begin on April 25; the smartphone retails for $1,299.99 for the 256 GB model and $1,399.99 for the 512 GB version.
In terms of service pricing, Verizon says it will “for a limited time” waive the $10 per month upcharge associated with 5G network access for subscribers on select unlimited plans.
