Iowa City may get 5G before much of New York City does. US Cellular (USCC), the last of the mid-sized regional carriers, plans to launch its 5G network across Iowa and Wisconsin in early 2020, providing both home and mobile service.
"It's going to cover...the majority of Iowa and Wisconsin. We'll start with the biggest cities in both states," said Jay Spenchian, US Cellular's senior VP of marketing.
USCC is the last of an old, proud breed: the midsized regional carrier. With about 5 million customers in 23 states, USCC has remained proudly independent while all of its peers—names such as Cricket, MetroPCS, SunCom, Cincinnati Bell, Western Wireless, and Alltel—all sold out to the big guys. There are still many much smaller carriers out there, mostly covering very rural areas, but US Cellular stands alone in the middle.
The company has survived because of faithful customers, Spenchian said. "Really excellent customer service...caring about the customer, I mean, we're legendary for that," he said.
In 2018, the last time US Cellular was featured in our Readers' Choice survey, the carrier fell below T-Mobile overall but was rated well above AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon on satisfaction. It rated better than all four national carriers on home area coverage and minimizing dropped calls, but our readers weren't impressed with prices.
US Cellular is pushing its 5G plan and launching a new marketing campaign around the concept of "fairness"—honest maps, straightforward plans, and good customer service. It's all very Midwestern, in a good way. And now's the time to do it in part because T-Mobile and Sprint are distracted by their merger, Spenchian said.
Kansas City-based Sprint has a solid brand and network in the Midwest, while T-Mobile isn't as well-respected in the region. Sprint disappearing into T-Mobile is an opportunity for a steady local hand to pull customers out of uncertainty.
"In the short-term, that creates a big opportunity for us," Spenchian said. "Any kind of merger creates distractions, and I think the potential customer is wondering, like, okay, where does this go? T-Mobile doesn't have the reputation we have in our footprint, and so it's going to take them a while to earn that."
Does 'Fair' Mean Affordable?
Spenchian wouldn't tell me about US Cellular's 5G pricing or data caps. For now, US Cellular slightly undercuts AT&T and Verizon on price. It currently has three "unlimited" plans. There's a $30 plan where video is choked down to 480p and your connection is always deprioritized; a $40 plan with 720p video, 25GB of fast data, and 15GB of hotspot; and a $50 plan with 1080p video, 50GB of fast data and 30GB of hotspot.
The company has a 4G home internet product right now, and Spenchian said 5G will let it expand aggressively. The carrier will prioritize a long-range 600MHz 5G network, which covers broad areas, although not with a ton of capacity.
"5G is going to allow us to go into a lot of places where we would have an advantage over, like, a cable provider," he said. "[But] satellite really is the one that's key."
US Cellular's current 4G home internet plans compare well to satellite, but its usage caps are absolutely brutal compared to cable. In Maine, for instance, US Cellular sells $50/month for 25GB, $70 for 55GB, $100 for 85GB, and $150 for 125GB. That compares well to satellite: HughesNet charges $100 for a mere 30GB and $150 for 50GB. But if you can get Spectrum Internet, uncapped 100Mbps service in Lewiston, Maine, costs $74.98.
US Cellular will be using a very small amount of spectrum for 5G, and Spenchian dodged and weaved a bit on performance promises. According to US Cellular CTO Mike Irizarry, quoted in Fierce Wireless, the carrier only has a 10x10MHz channel of 600MHz for its 5G network. In theory, that means up to about 62Mbps of speed; in reality, it means probably about 30Mbps plus whatever it can offer on 4G right now.
Bringing 5G to the Heartland
Here's where US Cellular has its native 4G LTE network now, and where it will potentially bring 5G. We pulled maps from Ookla's Mosaik MapElements platform (Ookla and PCMag are owned by J2 Global.)
USCC's existing 4G network covers a good chunk of the county, just not a lot of big cities. It's most dominant in Iowa, Nebraska, and Maine.
Here's where US Cellular has purchased 600MHz licenses, and then the 600MHz licenses and the LTE network laid on top of each other. The company will start by bringing rural LTE to Iowa and Wisconsin, but as you can see, Oregon, Washington, Maine, and other states could benefit as well.
The company also has licenses for 24GHz and 28GHz, the short-distance "millimeter wave" bands Verizon and AT&T are using to deliver high-speed connections in urban areas. Spenchian said USCC was looking at the University of Iowa as a potential partner, and it looks like it could cover the campuses of universities in both Iowa and Nebraska with millimeter-wave.
US Cellular will launch its 5G network in Iowa and Wisconsin during the first quarter of 2020. Maybe we'll add it to our Race to 5G tracker when it does.