Suppose you’re sitting in your high-rise apartment, located in the most connected parts of New York, and multi-managing your digital life. On one device, you have a PowerPoint presentation going, and on the other, you’re streaming the latest episode of ‘Bones’ while checking your mobile for emails in between. Everything is running smoothly and not a single ounce of data latency can be seen trumping your flow. This is indeed out of the ordinary because what’s powering your internet at present is not your usual Spectrum ISP, but a wireless 5G connection from Verizon.
What is 5G doing in the domain of home broadband? Let me explain the context. Almost one-third of US households in the cities either have no wired service in their areas or can access only one to two providers. This lack of supply in contrast to a huge demand results in higher prices and low network quality, leaving consumers craving for more competitive home internet options.
This is where 5G comes into play as a viable alternative, and is already in the process of being rolled out by major carriers, such as Verizon, AT&T, Sprint & T-Mobile, etc. For a US market looking to expand home broadband options, 5G’s entrance in the industry seems like a promising move. Let’s see how it performs on a residential scale.
5G in the Role of ‘Wireless Home Broadband’
Hardware-Wise
Most of the homes in tight-knit neighborhoods already have wires running through the walls, creeping along the floors and connecting to this modem or that cable box. This creates an unnecessary hassle and subjects the equipment to wear & tear. Verizon’s 5G (taking the most popular example here) resolves this issue quite smartly. How? By requiring you to mount only a small antenna, roughly the size of a booklet, on the most favorable side of your house. This antenna then does the job of connecting to the nearest 5G hotspot node and carrying beams of data to the wireless modem, which serves as a home Wi-Fi router and powers your indoor devices. Neat, right?
Stability-Wise
Cables are often praised for their signal consistency, and with them removed from the equation, how can you get stable speeds for your home? There is a simple answer to that. Verizon’s 5G home broadband service uses millimeter-wave technology, which distributes a personalized and high-pitch signal stream to each household. In other words, this brand of 5G relays internet over extremely high frequencies, usually between 30 GHz and 300 GHz, which is a guarantee of its reliability. Meaning, your signal won’t be dropped despite all sorts of interferences. That is why it is often referred to as “fixed wireless” too.
Provider-Wise
While Verizon wears the performance crown in 5G rollout, AT&T has the best coverage so far, though its speeds may be less. So, if you don’t have Verizon in your area, then you can always revert to other providers. Local Cable Deals is one of the best platforms for determining AT&T availability in your zip, FYI. Other than that, there’s Sprint which has an HTC hub for 5G already in circulation and T-Mobile which is still working out its plans for residential provision.
Speed-Wise
The highest speeds offered by Verizon 5G for home go over the 1 Gbps mark, with the lowest hanging between 500 to 600 Mbps. These are more than enough to feed your ‘power usage’ activities such as streaming YouTube TV, managing Nest Smart Home device network, playing Xbox Live, powering IoT if any and other smart devices.
Final Verdict
What we can glean from Verizon’s announcement is that their 5G network service is more like a premium add-on, rather than an upgrade to their current broadband plans. Even as an exclusive service, 5G does promise us fewer cable boxes and thereby, lesser costs on the monthly bill in comparison. Moreover, Verizon offers free YouTube TV subscription (for the first month) and free Apple TV 4K device in the select cities with its 5G for home plans, encouraging users to watch TV on the Ultra-Fast Wi-Fi beam instead of paying for a separate television plan.
So, whether you have a DSL, cable, satellite or fiber internet connection at home, you can surely anticipate a huge wave of transition in the coming years towards the wire-free, worry-free and the fastest speed supporting 5G technology, which even in its infancy is riling up the rest of the broadband providers. Though it may take years to launch on the commercial-wide scale, 5G still gives us all reasons to be excited!