Verizon Has Spectrum Issues, LightShed Says

LightShed’s Walter Piecyk told investors Verizon faces problems on spectrum. “Verizon’s spectrum position has been a nagging concern for investors and it’s likely to persist in 2020,” he said Monday: “Verizon’s current network strategy leans heavily on small cell densification and [millimeter-wave] spectrum. However, the early performance of mmWave spectrum has been worse than promised and the pace of small cell deployments is slower than expected.” The carrier continues to convert its CDMA spectrum to LTE, not 5G, “to maintain and improve its network performance,” he said. Verizon didn’t comment.