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Verizon Expands 5G Home Internet to Detroit

Verizon is making the first stabs in a while to modernize its 5G home internet access system.

Sascha Segan
 & Sascha Segan Former Lead Analyst, Mobile

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Americans want more choices in home internet, and since 2018, Verizon has sworn that it will use 5G to provide them. Today we saw the first expansion of its 5G Home product in quite a while, as the system launched in Detroit, and Verizon converted its Indianapolis and LA systems to the current 5G-NR standard.

Verizon has an unusually dense 5G rollout in downtown Detroit, Dearborn, Garden City, and parts of Rochester in Michigan, so while it doesn't offer a specific coverage map for its 5G home service, it's likely to be in those areas.

Dearborn map Verizon 5G has pretty good coverage in Dearborn.

The service comes with an Alexa-enabled Wi-Fi 6 router as well as a free month of YouTube TV, three months of Google Stadia, and a year of Disney+.

Unlimited 5G home service costs $50 for Verizon Wireless customers and $70 for non-customers, and Verizon has in the past estimated download speeds of at least 300Mbps.

According to BroadbandNow, AT&T, Xfinity, and WOW! have service in Dearborn, with prices for 200Mbps service starting at $49.99 per month.

Related

Verizon says it will have service in 10 cities by the end of the year, but it's still waiting for critical equipment. Verizon uses the short-range millimeter-wave system to distribute 5G. It needs home modems based on the new Qualcomm QTM527 antenna system, which can extend the system's range, as well as potentially in-home repeaters from its new partner Pivotal Commware; both are supposedly coming later this year.

Verizon also initially launched its home product based on a proprietary pre-standard, called 5GTF. To get to the next stage, it needs to swap out all of the old 5GTF equipment for global standard 5GNR equipment, which it says it's now doing in Indianapolis and Los Angeles.

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About Our Expert

Sascha Segan

Sascha Segan

Former Lead Analyst, Mobile

My Experience

I'm that 5G guy. I've actually been here for every "G." I reviewed well over a thousand products during 18 years working full-time at PCMag.com, including every generation of the iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy S. I also wrote a weekly newsletter, Fully Mobilized, where I obsessed about phones and networks.

My Areas of Expertise

  • US and Canadian mobile networks
  • Mobile phones released in the US
  • iPads, Android tablets, and ebook readers
  • Mobile hotspots
  • Big data features such as Fastest Mobile Networks and Best Work-From-Home Cities

The Technology I Use

Being cross-platform is critical for someone in my position. In the US, the mobile world is split pretty cleanly between iOS and Android. So I think it's really important to have Apple, Android and Windows devices all in my daily orbit.

I use a Lenovo ThinkPad Carbon X1 for work and a 2021 Apple MacBook Pro for personal use. My current phone is a Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, although I'm probably going to move to an Android foldable. Most of my writing is either in Microsoft OneNote or a free notepad app called Notepad++. Number crunching, which I do often for those big data stories, is via Microsoft Excel, DataGrip for MySQL, and Tableau.

In terms of apps and cloud services, I use both Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive heavily, although I also have iCloud because of the three Macs and three iPads in our house. I subscribe to way too many streaming services. 

My primary tablet is a 12.9-inch, 2020-model Apple iPad Pro. When I want to read a book, I've got a 2018-model flat-front Amazon Kindle Paperwhite. My home smart speakers run Google Home, and I watch a TCL Roku TV. And Verizon Fios keeps me connected at home.

My first computer was an Atari 800 and my first cell phone was a Qualcomm Thin Phone. I still have very fond feelings about both of them.

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