Verizon increases mobile network speeds across the Auburn area

It’s part of a national rollout that Verizon began earlier this year as the cell phone carrier continues to increase its network speeds from 5G to what it calls 5G Ultra Wideband, or 5G UW, for short. According to Verizon, these new speeds will allow on average 300 million megabits-per-second downloads, up to a gig-per-second.

It’s an increase that’s drawing close to what’s typically available at Jordan-Hare Stadium.

Verizon first began rolling out its 5G network in 2018. At the time, the cell phone provider specifically targeted major metropolitan areas, as well as stadium venues across the country. Essentially, 5G was being used in small areas with high concentrations of people.

The 5G version that was released in stadiums at the time was called millimeter wave, or mmwave for short. Mmwave allows for high amounts of data to move over smaller areas. While mmwave can be knocked out in bad weather or by trees and hills, it works well over small distances. According to Verizon, it allows for speeds of a gigabit per second up to four gigabits per second.

At the other end of the spectrum is Verizon’s 4G LTE Networks. These networks, while slower, allow for data to move much greater distances than mmwave.

The 5G UW now available in Auburn, however, finds its home in the middle ground between 5G mmwave and 4G LTE. The new 5G UW is called C-band and provides greater speed than 4G LTE and greater distance than 5G mmwave.

“What we’re calling the Ultra Wideband launch actually happened earlier this year in the spring,” said Andy Choi, Communications Manager at Verizon. “That was sort of for us ushering in the second wave of the 5G era. This was the expansion of Verizon’s Ultra Wideband.”

While the company first began rolling out its 5G network for mobile devices and home broadband in April of 2018, the recent speed increase marks new territory as the cell giant continues to expand its coverage.

According to Choi, this second wave will allow the company to provide cell phone networks on a much larger scale than was initially introduced in 2018. He said the expansion has already given over 100 million people across the nation access to 5G UW networks.

Choi likens the network expansion to adding more lanes to a highway.

“When you expand the number of lanes, more traffic can get through and traffic can move through faster,” Choi said. “So in the world of 5G with uploads and downloads, you’re able to process and you’re able to sort of trade all that information going back and forth from your device to the network. Wherever it’s going, it can move much faster, you can move more a lot faster.”

Choi added: “All the ways that we’re using our mobile devices, whether it’s for FaceTime, downloading movies, any kind of like virtual education that your kids may be doing at home, virtual work that’s happening on the phones, with those highways expanding that’s where the 5G network really starts to shine.”

Meanwhile, mmwave will still be available at the stadium as well. Verizon began targeting stadiums, including Jordan-Hare, because of the number of people that would fill a small area who would also need access to their phones.

“Those millimeter wave network ranges are really meant for those kind of high capacity places where there’s going to be a lot of people in one space like a football stadium,” Choi said. “We know that on gamedays, obviously, you know you’re gonna have a crush of fans wanting to use their phones to connect in all kinds of different ways.”