Verizon says that clients in “many markets across the US” might get considerably sooner 5G speeds, even after they’re not proper subsequent to a cell tower. According to a press release on Monday, that is attainable as a result of Verizon’s deploying additional C-band spectrum; for some areas, the provider’s now utilizing 100 MHz of bandwidth as a substitute of 60 MHz. The firm says some engineers bought blazing quick obtain speeds of 1.4 Gigabits per second after they had been “near active cell sites,” which dropped right down to a (nonetheless very quick) 500 Mbps after they moved “further away from the towers.”

Verizon didn’t instantly reply to The Verge’s query about how far the engineers had been from the towers after they performed the check.

While folks utilizing Verizon’s extremely wideband community might theoretically get larger speeds than that, they’d have to take action utilizing millimeter wave expertise. That tech, nevertheless, is simply out there in a very select number of cities — and even the place it does exist, you’ll doubtless must principally have the ability to be throughout the tower’s line of sight if you would like to have the ability to use it. In concept, C-band will have the ability to present higher speeds even once you’re not proper subsequent to the cell towers.

Verizon spokesperson Kevin King declined to inform The Verge precisely the place the brand new spectrum is being activated at the moment however stated that the corporate has “100MHz of spectrum available in the 30 markets” it gained entry to earlier this year. The firm does, nevertheless, have some limitations on the place and when it may well roll out C-band protection over the subsequent yr, because of its settlement with the Federal Aviation Administration to create buffer zones round airports for planes that may have their gear affected by mobile indicators.

While sooner speeds are enjoyable, Verizon’s additionally promising another advantages from the additional spectrum. The firm says the 100 MHz rollouts ought to give its community the capability to deal with extra customers and allow sufficient capability for issues like its 5G dwelling web.

The firm has been promising to deploy an increasing number of of its C-band spectrum for some time after it’s paid billions for the rights to make use of these airwaves. Its press launch on Monday reiterates its plans to broaden past the 100 MHz it’s utilizing in some locations at the moment, as much as 200 MHz sooner or later.

But as the corporate’s expanded its 5G community, it’s additionally raised costs on a few of its plans. Verizon doesn’t precisely correlate these two issues — it blames larger charges on “economic conditions” and “costs of complying with regulatory requirements.” The web impact, although, is that clients aren’t precisely getting sooner speeds without spending a dime, even when their plans are staying the identical. It’s additionally value noting that not each Verizon 5G plan offers you entry to the extremely wideband community and its 500 Mbps downloads. If you need extra data on that, you may try our information to telephone plans right here.