First 5G Handsets Coming Soon, Verizon CFO Says

Verizon expects the first 5G handsets to be available in the first half of 2019 and this week completed the first call on a Motorola prototype, said Chief Financial Officer Matt Ellis Wednesday at a Morgan Stanley European technology conference. “It's now nice to say we are officially in the 5G era.” The carrier expects to see the global standard version of 5G residential broadband equipment next year and at that point will expand its 5G launch, he said. In October, Verizon went live in parts of Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles and Sacramento with fixed 5G (see 1810010028). The carrier is learning a lot from the pilot, Ellis said. “We're not just doing the install and leaving them, we're staying in touch with those customers and getting a lot of good feedback in terms of they like the significant increase in speed they're getting versus their prior broadband that they were getting from another third party.” Ellis praised the FCC's September small-cells order (see 1809260029). “The FCC understands that the industry is going to need incremental spectrum so that the ecosystem fully develops to 5G,” he said. “They've done a good job over the past couple of years identifying where that additional spectrum will come from and then trying to find ways to bring it to market as quickly as possible within the other rules.” Ellis credits the 5G Technology Forum, which Verizon formed with carriers in South Korea and Japan and equipment makers, with accelerating the move. Last December, the first 5G standard was approved, he noted. “Without that pressure from the coalition we formed, that wouldn't have happened … and we'd probably still be talking about 5G as 2020 technology.”