Verizon said it will start installations of its 5G home-broadband service on Oct. 1, in what the company says will be the world’s first 5G commercial service.
“Verizon 5G Home customers should expect typical network speeds around 300 Mbps and, depending on location, peak speeds of nearly 1 Gig, with no data caps,” Verizon said in a statement. “Verizon 5G Home is ideal for consumers looking to ‘cut the cord’ or upgrade from their current cable service.”
5G is considered the next evolution in mobile technology that will create wireless networks faster and more powerful than the current 4G or LTE networks. Verizon and others have been laying the foundation of 5G networks for some time. While Verizon’s 5G Home service won’t be a true 5G wireless network, it will help the company as it continues to build out a faster wireless network.
Verizon will begin rolling out the service, called Verizon 5G Home, initially in four cities: Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, and Sacramento.
The company will begin signing up customers for its 5G broadband on Thursday, Sept. 13. To entice customers to sign up, the company is offering free installation, three months of complimentary service, a free Chromecast or Apple TV 4K, and three months of free YouTube TV. Current Verizon customers will pay $50 a month for the service, while new customers will pay $70 a month, with no additional hardware costs.
In May, Verizon’s then-CEO Lowell McAdam said that the company would begin rolling out its 5G network by the end of 2018. The company said Tuesday that it’s rolling out 5G Home with its own proprietary standards as some of the industry-wide technical standards are still being worked out.