Verizon exec: Home 5G helps set the table for mobile

Verizon’s top engineer said the company sees its new 5G home broadband service as a way to introduce customers to the next generation of wireless technology.

What they’re saying: “Many places may only have one [broadband] provider,” Nicki Palmer, Verizon’s chief network officer, said on an episode of C-Span’s The Communicators filmed this week. “And we think this is a way with no trenching, no disruption to the home, where we can provide a very competitive product using this technology.”

• Palmer noted that people who are not current Verizon customers can get the service, as can current customers. She said it “allows us as a company to be an insurgent in places where customers love our wireless services.”

She also pushed back on T-Mobile chief executive John Legere, who tweeted of the home broadband offering that “I have to say congrats to Verizon on delivering its 5G* Home Service today. It doesn’t use global industry standards or cover whole blocks and will never scale… but hey, it is first, right?! 🤷‍♂️”

• "“It’s actually false,” Palmer said of Legere's comment.
• She noted that Verizon is using pre-commercial gear to deliver its 5G home broadband service, but said that it could either be kept as is or upgraded to the final standard.
• Verizon would have to change out the home equipment in order to have it be standards compliant. But unlike a phone, which needs to follow standards in order to interoperate and roam onto other networks, the home gear will only ever need to work with Verizon's equipment.

Go deeper:

• The White House on Thursday announced a presidential memorandum ordering the Commerce Department to develop a national spectrum strategy, with an eye towards the global race to 5G.
• Axios’ tech team went deep on the next generation wireless networks last month.