New 5G Coverage & Maps

All 4 top carriers are now offering what they consider "5G".  In this horse race, Sprint users report the most usable mobile 5G coverage.  We'll credit their use of "mid-band" frequencies (2.5 GHz) for coverage.  The other 3 carriers are still rolling out their 5G on "high" frequencies (39 GHz) which have very little range but plenty of capacity.

The corresponding coverage maps seem to reflect this difference, if they show any coverage.  Sprint shows very useful and somewhat optimistic maps and T-Mobile is showing very detailed if not broad-ranging maps.  Those 2 will also have a big re-shuffle of 5G coverage if their proposed merger is approved.  So far, so good.  Other carriers have not yet shared their big reveal. We'll follow what we know on our 5G Coverage Maps page.

Related: 5G is Not Ready for Prime Time

Another 5G player may surface as Dish Network has offered to purchase any spectrum and wireless assets that will need to be divested to secure federal approval of the T-Mobile - Sprint merger.  Dish has indicated that all of their own coverage on any new spectrum will be 5G.  They may well end up with enough spectrum to act as a new fourth wireless player in the US market, and that spectrum is located in favorable frequency bands.  We have introduced their coverage assets on our new Dish Wireless coverage page.

Sprint Turns On "Real" Mobile 5G

Today Sprint starts offering 5G in four markets, Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and Kansas City.  Sprint now claims the largest 5G coverage in the nation and can be used with one of their 5G phones which are now available at Sprint stores.

Sprint also plans to light up service in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City and Washington DC by the first of July. We have maps of future 5G Coverage.

Initial Sprint Kansas City 5G Coverage

Today's 5G: Not Ready for Prime Time

Last week Verizon Wireless admitted that their new 5G coverage is a bit "spotty" but that's to be expected with new technology.  That may be so, but many of us are fearful that wireless coverage at such high frequencies will not be the new broadband promised land.  Verizon's 5G coverage utilizes 39 GHz.  That's 80 times higher than UHF TV signals, and that's already "Ultra High".  We know that region as "microwaves", but the wireless industry calls it "mmWave".  If it quacks like a duck...  ARS Technica posted a great discussion from Verizon's stock earnings call on the topic.

AT&T is using equally high microwave...uh, mmWave...frequencies, but their customers can't move around (they don't have any mobile devices, yet) so the effects are less of a problem...for now.  Interestingly, T-Mobile issued a post about Verizon and AT&T's 5G performance, which is clearly one-sided in favor T-Mobile, but it does portray a view of how many hurdles each carrier has getting to 5G-nirvana.

Related: Millions of Cell Sites

We agree that it's really early in the process, but if the carriers are depending on frequencies above 3GHz, universal 5G coverage is l o n g way off.  Visible light is on equally high frequencies and you get an approximation of how limited coverage can be if you set up a light bulb on a phone pole and observe how far away you can see it...literally!  That's "line-of-sight."  Those channels do have potential for fixed wireless access, but mobile access will probably need much lower frequencies...like the ones T-Mobile are about to use.

C Spire Wireless in Mississippi is running fiber to certain customers' homes and then connecting neighboring homes with a wireless link from an outside antenna.  It works, but at what cost?  Someone will get this right, but they haven't, yet.

AT&T Now Offers 5G in 19 Cities

AT&T claims the next prize for the most 5G coverage, now in 19 cities.  The bad news? AT&T so far only supports one 5G device, a hot spot...and the actual areas with 5G coverage are very small.   The good news? AT&T 5G speeds are as fast as expected.

Related Post: When 5G Isn't Really 5G.

Of course, 5G phones are coming, maybe this year.  Keep in mind 5G will change our lives mostly in its application of the IoT (Internet of Things) which involves far more than our smart phones.  This also means, to be effective, 5G coverage must be even more universal than 4G-LTE coverage is today.  This looks years away, especially when construction of additional cell sites is facing so much opposition.  That means for the near term, 5G service will best serve as a wireless replacement for your current Internet access.  That also means new competition for video services like cable and satellite TV.

So, in the short term, when 5G comes to your neighborhood (lucky you!), there can be some significant changes in how you connect to the rest of the world...but you'll still have to drive your car yourself.

Verizon Launches Mobile 5G in 2 Cities

Verizon Wireless calls this a "first".  They have switched on 5G wireless in Minneapolis and Chicago and this time it isn't limited to home Internet service.  There is one 5G smartphone, the Moto Z3 combined with 5G Moto mod, that can be used on the new 5G network in these 2 cities.  Fortunately, everything is backwards-compatible so you won't lose service when you travel outside the still very tiny 5G coverage area.

Related: 5G for All of Us

The Verizon 5G rollout today is about a week earlier than planned, but more important, it claims the first 5G wireless mobile network in the world, beating the same announcement in South Korea.  This is also Verizon's first use of the actual 5G standard which allows the potential higher speeds by 5G, approaching 1 Ghz downloads.

We have added a couple more dots to the 5G Coverage Map.  Hopefully, the actual 5G coverage will soon expand to cover the whole dot.

End of the Wireless Home Phone

We watched the decline of the home landline, as alternatives for the home phone became widely available and much less expensive.  Our favorite of these was the wireless home phone which was available from all of the major carriers, and a few alternative suppliers.  The advantage that attracted us was that the wireless base unit was self-contained...no Internet connection, computer or router was needed.

Now, all carriers, other than Verizon Wireless, have discontinued sales of plain wireless home phone units, although they still offer plans for existing units.  Even our best-selling unit from Straight Talk is currently listed as "out of stock."  For now, there are a few outside sources for these units.  Wireless units that provide both home phone and Internet service are still available, some of which should eventually be replaced by 5G wireless broadband.

Related: Installing a Wireless Home Phone

Noting this trend, we decided to reconstruct our Wireless Home Phone web site to one that reflects all of the alternatives available for a phone that serves your entire home: The Home Phone Zone. Today, there are several methods available for replacing or establishing a "home" phone, the potentially outdated notion that a family would want to share a separate phone line throughout the house.  Fortunately, wireless home phones are still available from a smaller number of suppliers.  Our new favorite home phone product is the home cell phone adapter which overcomes the downside of cellular signal problems, the inconvenience of carrying your smart phone around the house, and the concern of running out of battery power.  And you aren't adding yet another phone number to the family collection.

Mid Rivers in Montana Exits Cellular

The Mid Rivers phone cooperative in Montana has agreed to sell their cellular network to Verizon Wireless.  Like other rural phone companies, they will focus on their landline and DSL service.  Fortunately, the competition has improved in the area, so switching to another carrier may get you better service, if not a better price.  If you have a good signal with Mid Rivers, Verizon will probably provide as good as or better than what you have now. Both AT&T and T-Mobile have expanded in Montana but you won't know if they cover your home as well until you try.

Related: Other Lost Carriers in Montana

Mid Rivers maintained an excellent cellular-band network but there's no guarantee that Verizon won't switch off some of the Mid-Rivers cell sites that are close to Verizon's existing locations.  We expect a slight improvement in wireless service for Mid Rivers customers but it's always sad to lose a local wireless presence.

The First 5G Zoom-in Maps

Credit to the author, Sascha Segan of PCMag for taking the verbal description of Verizon's 5G coverage and creating maps for it.  We thought about copying the maps to our Cellular Maps site, but we're afraid you wouldn't believe how small it is.  Follow this link to the article to understand the methodology and limits of this coverage.

Of course it's early in the process.  We expect 5G coverage to expand...but it looks like it will be v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y.