Verizon's New Coverage Map Shows Massively Expanded 5G

pcmag.com:

Verizon today updated its online coverage map with new "ultra wideband" C-Band 5G coverage, showing where it says more than 90 million Americans will be able to get the new system.

We tested Verizon's C-Band last week and found the system doubled or tripled Verizon's 4G speeds. In a best-case scenario, we saw speeds up to 700Mbps. Aside from making phones faster, Verizon intends to use the new airwaves to expand its $50/month wireless home internet offering. Wireless home internet won't be available everywhere the map shows coverage, though, because it's very dependent on available network capacity.

I'm not sure how trustworthy the map is to track coverage now, as opposed to where Verizon intends to have coverage soon. The map shows some places as covered with C-Band that my testing showed had no C-Band. For example, I tested in the NYC neighborhoods of Long Island City, Sunnyside, and Rego Park last Wednesday—all of which should be covered by C-Band, according to Verizon's map. But I did not find any C-Band there.

The map also shows complete C-Band coverage throughout Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. I found some C-Band coverage there on Friday, but not as much as the map shows.

Verizon tells me that coverage has indeed improved between last week and this week, although the company did not go into block-by-block details.

Other people seem to be having the same problem.

At this exact moment, I've sent all my network testing phones to Chicago so we can look at AT&T C-Band performance there. But I'll continue to keep an eye on the situation.

C-Band isn't just for central cities, the map shows. Much of central Alabama and northwest South Carolina are covered. In Indiana, a solid block of coverage reaches from southwest of