Verizon’s 5G network is looking up. The operator this week added uplink capabilities to its 5G network and will expand its footprint to its 35th U.S. city later this month. 

CEO Hans Vestberg last week said the company is on plan to reach 60 cities and claim nationwide coverage by the end of the year. That expansion will be through an assist from dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS), a technology that allows operators to use the same spectrum for 4G LTE and 5G on an demand-generated and automated basis. 

Verizon was the first U.S. operator to deploy a non-standards based 5G network, but it is still well behind its biggest domestic competitors on 5G. T-Mobile US reached nationwide 5G coverage in December 2019. AT&T’s 5G network, as of last month, covered more than 120 million people in 190 markets, and it plans to reach nationwide coverage this summer.

“Competition in the near term will be a marketing war of coverage and speed. That’s no surprise as it’s the same playbook that we’ve been attuned to,” said William Ho, founder and principal analyst at 556 Ventures. 

“The 5G race is founded in what is in every player’s portfolio in getting to the finish line. The easiest and lowest hanging marketing fruit is national coverage. That is in my view the biggest competitive message — the largest 5G network,” he said. “Achieving the coverage map is the same approach as in 4G coverage, you get it with low-band spectrum.”

Verizon’s 5G strategy, which rides heavily on millimeter-wave (mmWave) spectrum for now, has put it behind the competition and it needs to acquire mid-band spectrum to overcome those near-term challenges, explained Anshel Sag, analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy.

"The addition of upload capabilities is a positive development for Verizon, and the delayed feature is underlined by the fact that upload has always been more challenging than download,” Sag said. “That’s why there was such an imbalance in 4G carried over to 5G.”

The upgrade also marks Verizon’s first foray into time-division duplex (TDD) technology, according to Ho. “The technology is new and it’s prudent that they approach it cautiously and not over promise,” he said. 

Every operator has the same end-game spectrum strategy — a layered cake of low-, medium-, and high-band spectrum, Ho explained. “If [Verizon] thought mmWave was a dud then they would not have acquired it. Verizon is the early mmWave adopter domestically and probably globally because it’s greenfield spectrum,” he said. 

That early adopter status on mmWave has likely required a lot of learning in planning, engineering, and operations, Ho added. While high-band spectrum has some coverage challenges, Verizon’s experience in mmWave will be a strength, especially when global partners make inquiries and start targeting 5G enterprise use cases that require low latency like factory automation, he said.

Verizon this week also announced new contracts with Movandi, Pivotal Commware, and Wistron NeWeb to amplify mmWave coverage with extenders. 

Meanwhile, a lacking supply of non-mmWave spectrum is a big factor precluding Verizon from deploying 5G more aggressively, Sag said. “I think most U.S. operators would’ve preferred to launch in the mid band for 5G without disturbing their low-band 4G offerings. Right now, T-Mobile is sharing their 600 MHz between 4G LTE and 5G while Verizon is expected to implement DSS, which won’t improve speeds much but it will significantly improve 5G coverage compared to mmWave.”

Indeed, Verizon has indicated that it is counting on DSS to reach national coverage and that footprint will likely mirror its current 4G LTE footprint, Ho said. “DSS has to fully match its LTE footprint for Verizon to pull the national 5G coverage marketing message.”

Verizon is aware of the shortcomings on its 5G network today and “for a company that’s so laser focused on the network I believe we will see [it] make significant changes in the next 18-24 months,” Sag said. “I’m not entirely sure it will come fast enough when you look at what the competition is already doing. I believe we’ll have a pretty good picture of where the big three are at in terms of 5G coverage by the end of next year.”