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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowVerizon Communications Inc., taking a key step toward rolling out speedier internet and pay-TV service across the United States, will start offering a fifth-generation package on Oct. 1 in in Indianapolis and three other cities, with signups beginning this week.
Would-be customers in those initial markets—Houston, Los Angeles and Sacramento, California also were chosen—will be able to check availability and order the service online starting Thursday at FirstOn5G.com. Verizon’s wireless subscribers will pay $50 a month for the 5G internet and TV service after a three-month free trial. Others will pay $70 a month after the first three months.
Verizon announced some of its rollout plans last month but not the timing and pricing.
Verizon is in a race with AT&T Inc. to introduce the first 5G wireless service—a standard that promises connection speeds between 10 and 100 times faster than today’s cable. Verizon plans to beam services to home receivers and compete against cable and satellite TV providers such as Comcast Corp. and Dish Network Corp. 5G networks also are seen as critical to ushering in an era of robotics and autonomous cars.
AT&T said it invested nearly $425 million in its Indianapolis area wireless and wired networks from 2015 to 2017 to prepare for 5G service, which it plans to offer by the end of the year.
Verizon 5G TV customers will get free Apple TV devices and Google’s YouTube TV on Roku boxes for streaming video services. Subscribers to the 5G service also will be offered live NFL and NBA games, as well as news programs through Verizon’s own Oath media division.
A major challenge for Verizon and the other wireless carriers is that high-frequency 5G radio signals are easily disrupted by rain and foliage. The service is still commercially unproven, but companies are expected to spend as much as $200 billion a year to develop the technology.
Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg is expected to give investors more details about the company’s 5G plans during a presentation Thursday at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia conference in New York.
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