Verizon continues to grow its 5G customer base and reach, but remains in a heated battle – especially from a spectrally emboldened T-Mobile US – for 5G leadership in the U.S.

The carrier ended the first quarter of 2021 with 14% of its postpaid customers riding on its nascent 5G network. It has deployed 5G on high-band spectrum in 67 U.S. cities to date and plans to deploy 5G on its recently acquired mid-band spectrum in earnest later this year. Verizon also has a “nationwide” 5G network running on its low-band spectrum concurrently used by its 4G LTE network with the aid of dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS) software.

“We have already ordered half of the total network equipment needed from our 5G suppliers to support C-band deployments in 2021,” CEO Hans Vestberg said during the earnings call, according to a Seeking Alpha transcript. 

Verizon ended its dealings with Nokia for 5G radio access network (RAN) equipment last summer, and made Ericsson and Samsung the sole beneficiaries of its RAN spending going forward. The operator said it began deploying the vendors’ 5G RAN equipment earlier this month and plans to reach 100 million people with its mid-band 5G network by April 2022.

“The satellite operators are on track to clear the spectrum between the third and fourth quarter of 2021 for the first tranche of spectrum,” Vestberg said, explaining why Verizon’s C-band spectrum won’t be commercially available for 5G service until later this year.

The company previously noted that its mid-band 5G deployments will increase in 2022 and 2023. Verizon last month told investors it intends to increase its capex by a cumulative $10 billion through 2023 to expand its 5G network with mid-band coverage reaching more than 250 million people by 2024.

Verizon has also deployed 21,000 millimeter-wave (mmWave) 5G sites to date and is on track to reach 30,000 sites by the end of this year, he said. Verizon made an early bet on mmWave for 5G but is slowly backing away from that strategy as it moves ahead on mid-band spectrum, which travels much further and requires fewer sites overall.

Verizon’s 5G network performance and timeline for full-scale deployment remains a point of concern for analysts. Recent speed tests “suggest that Verizon’s hegemony is already slipping. Most tests suggest that all three networks are now reasonably comparable,” analysts at MoffettNathanson wrote. 

“In 5G, Verizon looks destined to be a fast-follower, at best. Verizon is quick to argue that T-Mobile’s 2.5 GHz spectrum won’t translate into a coverage advantage,” but the propagation differences between that and Verizon’s 3.7 GHz spectrum can’t be ignored, the analysts wrote.

“T-Mobile has more spectrum, they have it sooner, and they’re already far down the road of building out their network,” MoffettNathanson analysts explained, adding that T-Mobile’s low-band 5G network is also “steadily eroding Verizon’s long-held advantage in rural America.”

All of this puts Verizon’s generation-old claim to the “best network” and the higher prices it charges for its service in peril, the analysts warned. 

“It is a competitive market, and it’s been for quite a while, but with our model I can see that we are actually winning,” Vestberg claimed during the earnings call.

Verizon banked almost $5.38 billion in net income on $32.87 billion in revenue, including $16.7 million in wireless service revenue, during the quarter. Verizon’s business unit reported a 1.3% jump in revenue to $7.8 billion. Total revenues were up 4% year over year and profits jumped 25.4%.

The operator also earlier this month, expanded its 5G mobile edge computing (MEC) offering with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to target both a public edge for consumers and private edge for enterprises. The move signals a growing preference for AWS. Verizon isn’t admitting as much at this juncture, but it’s MEC contract with Microsoft Azure hasn’t yet materialized in a commercial offering.