Verizon's New Waterproof 5G Home Receiver Doubles Upload Speeds
Verizon launches a new receiver that can seamlessly switch between mmWave and C-band 5G or 4G LTE for the fastest signal.
Verizon's new 5G Home receiver is the first to support mmWave and C-band 5G as well as 4G LTE signal.
Verizon 5G Home internet customers will soon be able to double their upload speeds thanks to a new 5G signal receiver, the carrier said Wednesday at Mobile World Congress in Las Vegas.
The carrier launched its 5G Home internet in 2020 to get customers online through its mobile 5G network, which the carrier has continued expanding, notably by launching its C-band 5G service in January. The carrier is upgrading its network and customer tech at the same time: Verizon's new receiver with 100% faster upload speeds in a 60% smaller and lighter case that's waterproof, so users can install it in or outdoors.
"Having optionality for outdoor installation gives another choice for customers to feel confident in, and anytime you can make something light and small and compact for a customer, it's better," said Krista Bourne, COO of Verizon Consumer Group.
The new receiver only improves how quickly customers upload data to the internet, like when uploading photos to the cloud or streaming on Twitch. Using the 5G Home router Verizon released last year, users will have the same average download speeds of 300Mbps and peak speeds of just under 1Gbps, which is comparable to regular wired internet, though it also features a 10Gbps LAN port and other ports for higher performance and faster throughput connections that may come in the future.
The new receiver is Verizon's first to tap into mmWave and C-band 5G as well as 4G LTE to seamlessly shift between them for the best signal. The prior model only supported mmWave and 4G.
Read more: I Have 5G on My Phone at Home, So Why Can't I Get 5G Home Internet?
Only customers in dense urban areas covered by Verizon's faster mmWave 5G will be able to get the new router, while those with C-band 5G will have to stick with their existing equipment for now. Verizon will start sending its new router to subscribers in limited markets later in 2022, with a national launch throughout the first quarter of 2023.
Verizon Home 5G covers over 30 million homes in 900 cities in the US. Signing up doesn't require a contract and costs less than typical wired internet starting at $50 per month with auto-pay, or half the price for customers with qualifying 5G Unlimited mobile plans. New customers signing up for Home 5G get additional perks like a month of service for free, free Disney Plus and AMC Plus for a year.
Correction, 12:15 pm PT: Based on information provided by the company, a previous version of this article misidentified the new hardware. Verizon is releasing a new Home 5G receiver, which receives 5G signals to send to a router.