The clock is ticking on Verizon’s plans to bring 5G to 30 cities. Short of an actual Christmas miracle, things are looking rough. On the upside, the carrier (and, disclosure, parent of TechCrunch) just brought the next-gen technology to a 19th city. And it’s a doozy.
Verizon announced this morning that it’s flipped the switch on 5G in Los Angeles. Or parts of it, at least. You get the usual caveat with Verizon’s chosen 5G tech here. It’s fast, coverage is limited. In fact, it’s limited to such a point that the company has to specify the specific neighborhoods covered by its ultra wide band tech.
L.A. is, of course, quite large. It’s the second most populous city in the U.S. and 12th largest by size (Alaska and Montana have a way of skewing those numbers). It’s a lot of ground to cover. The company’s rapidly gentrifying downtown area seems to have gotten most of the love here.
Here’s the per neighborhood breakdown straight form the carrier’s mouth,
[P]arts of Downtown, Chinatown, Del Rey, and Venice around landmarks such as: Grand Park, Los Angeles Convention Center, Union Station, LA Live, Staples Center, and Venice Beach Boardwalk.
Verizon promises that Charlotte, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Des Moines, Little Rock, Memphis and Salt Lake City will be added to the list before end of year.