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Verizon’s sub-6 ‘5G Nationwide’ is now available for prepaid customers

Verizon launched its ‘5G Nationwide’ network coverage for most postpaid customers in October alongside the launch of Apple’s latest flagship smartphones. Now, Verizon has now confirmed to 9to5Mac that its 5G Nationwide network is also available for use with 5G phones, including iPhone 12 and 12 Pro, on the company’s own prepaid service…

The same sub-6 GHz network that those on Verizon’s postpaid plans enjoy is now available for those on prepaid. It’s presumably compatible at least with the 5G phones that Verizon currently sells through its prepaid site, which include the iPhone 12 series and Galaxy S20 FE 5G. We’re currently seeing it live on an iPhone 12 Pro.

5G is fundamentally two different technologies, and while it seems the switch has been flipped on the slower sub-6 GHz form (5G Nationwide), Verizon says that its Ultra Wideband offerings are “coming to Prepaid in early 2021,” at least according to verbiage on the company’s prepaid website.

While it’s always welcome to get access to the latest technologies, early tests conducted this week show that Verizon’s 5G Nationwide network isn’t actually faster than LTE in some places. In my area, however, I’ve found Verizon’s 5G Nationwide network to be substantially faster than LTE.

Competing networks, like T-Mobile and AT&T, have offered sub-6 5G service for several months now on their own equivalents to Verizon’s 5G Nationwide. Popular MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) Visible, which runs on Verizon’s network, recently launched its sub-6 5G on iPhone 12, and that device is the only one supported on that network so far.

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Avatar for Stephen Hall Stephen Hall

Stephen is Growth Director at 9to5. If you want to get in touch, follow me on Twitter. Or, email at stephen (at) 9to5mac (dot) com, or an encrypted email at hallstephenj (at) protonmail (dot) com.


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