Verizon's Sport Stadium 5G Coverage Doesn't Reach All Spectators

There is a big catch to Verizon's upcoming 5G sports arena coverage.

| Oct 22, 2019 09:01 AM EST

Created: Oct 22, 2019 09:01 AM EST

Telecommunications giant Verizon recently announced it would be providing 5G coverage to several large sports arenas throughout the U.S.

It turns out there is a pretty big caveat. The coverage will only be available in certain seating areas and won't reach all spectators in the stands.

5G coverage, with a big catch

Verizon's 5G is being rolled out in San Francisco's Chase Center, Denver's Pepsi Center, and Phoenix's Talking Stick Resort Arena. However, NBA fans who are looking forward to the season starting and having incredibly fast Internet coverage at these arenas might want to check their seating areas.

As Engadget points out, Verizon has also added 5G accessibility to 13 NFL arenas, including the homes of the Broncos, Seahawks, and Patriots. However, these suffer from the same seating area limitations.

Early 5G limitations

As per Ars Technica, Verizon's early 5G is easily blocked by obstacles such as walls. As such, the lack of coverage shouldn't really come as a surprise. 5G is, after all, still a technology in development.

However, the fact that Verizon is having trouble providing strong 5G coverage in stadiums isn't a great sign — especially as the company announced in February that it plans to roll out 5G to 30 cities this year.

The promise of 5G

5G represents the set of standards adopted by the telecommunications industry in 2017. It would go on to form the basis for the successor of 4G LTE connections.

5G is expected to provide much faster download and upload speeds than 4G. These could be as much as 100 times faster with the added benefit of much more reliable connections than we currently experience.

As well as giving an incredibly fast and stable Internet experience, 5G can allow people to remotely control devices, instruments, or robotics hands with almost zero latency.