5G Wireless Launches in Phoenix Area

Mobile carriers, Verizon and Sprint have debuted 5G wireless in the Phoenix area, making the city one of the first in the U.S. to experience the faster service.

Phoenix is the ninth city Sprint has launched the service in, which began serving over 740,000 people on Tuesday.

Phoenix is the 10th city Verizon has launched the service in, which began on Aug. 23 in Downtown Phoenix and on the Arizona State University campus.


Both companies have intentions to continue the service’s expansion until the entire metro area is covered.

Scott Santi, Sprint’s vice president of network operations claims that 5G will help customer satisfaction, customer productivity, and technological advancements.

“Phoenix is one of our largest cities in terms of coverage,” said Santi. “Phoenix is a key city as one of our early launch markets because of its large business and tech sector. It also has a good customer base for us.”

Sprint has invested millions of dollars into deploying 5G service into the state. The goal is to have the entire metro area covered within the next 18-24 months.

Sprint’s technology allows for strengthened 4G service and 5G through the same antenna.

“This is unique to Sprint and provides true 5G mobility,” Santi said. “Now we can have a smaller antenna that frees up space structurally on the cell site and makes for a more successful permitting process.”

5G will allow for a better, faster data speeds for media, like video.

“We expect new business innovation will spark now because of the 5G technology,” said Thomas Tran, Sprint’s radio frequency director for the West region. “5G will spur technology we haven’t even thought of yet.”

Sprint experimented by downloading a full-length movie from Amazon on both a 5G and a 4G enabled smartphone. The 5G download took 20 seconds, while the 4G download took over a minute.

Click here for more information on 5G with Sprint.

Click here for more information on 5G with Verizon.