Verizon plans massive 5G rollout, analysts skeptical

Verizon plans to build its 5G, fixed wireless network to 30 million homes, the company’s CFO said. The executive said that Verizon will deploy the service to areas outside its FiOS fiber-to-the-home footprint, and provided a timeframe of “over the next few years.” Verizon plans 5G deployment in Sacramento and four other cities in 2018, though the technology is still under development.

But industry analysts are skeptical of Verizon’s 5G plans. After a November report of the company’s 5G plans, Craig Moffett of Moffett-Nathanson called Verizon’s talk about 5G “rather squishy” and “so murky as to be unforecastable.” Verizon provided very little information about cost and pricing, leading another analyst to write “Verizon’s initial fixed wireless implementation seems clunky and it withheld its pricing strategy.”

Links:

CFO: Verizon 5G Plans Will Target 30M Homes Outside of Fios Markets with Fixed Gigabit Wireless (Telecompetitor, Dec. 5, 2017)

Verizon’s ‘Clunky, Squishy’ 5G Talk Fails to Impress Street (Barron’s, Nov. 30, 2017)