What you need to know
- Verizon's Ultra Wideband mmWave 5G has reached 100 million people covered in 1,700 cities, with C-band launching later in January.
- Verizon has updated its unlimited plans with more premium data and hotspot data though, Ultra Wideband data is now included.
- Verizon 5G Home Internet has also been updated with two unlimited plans featuring new perks when you sign up.
Verizon announced some new features for its customers celebrating its milestone of reaching 100 million people with 5G Ultra Wideband coverage. Unlike its nationwide 5G network, Ultra Wideband uses mmWave tech to deliver gigabit speeds to devices, though it requires many more towers to accomplish. Verizon is also set to expand coverage even further, with C-band 5G joining its Ultra Wideband coverage later in January.
Verizon held a livestream called the 5G Ultra Show to show off what was possible with its ultra-fast 5G network, hosted by Elizabeth Banks.
Verizon now provides Ultra Wideband 5G coverage to 100 million people in more than 1,700 cities across the country. While coverage on this network is still more sparse than competitor T-Mobile's mid-band network, Verizon is set to make up ground by deploying its own mid-band network on its C-band spectrum.
The carrier's unlimited plans have also been updated to make them more ultra. Verizon now offers four main plans starting with 5G Start. Like the Start Unlimited plan it replaced, 5G Start has access to the nationwide 5G network and unlimited data though it lacks any hotspot data and has no premium data.
The most significant plan updates came to the 5G Play More, 5G Do More, and 5G Get More plans. The 5G Play More and 5G Do More plans still have 50GB of premium data; however, hotspot data has been bumped up to 25GB for each plan. The 5G Play More plan comes with a selection of streaming perks, including Hulu, Disney, ESPN+, and the choice of Apple Arcade or Google Play Pass. You can also get six months of Apple Music for free.
The 5G Do More plan replaces the streaming perks with up to 50% off a hotspot plan, one TravelPass day per month, and 600GB of Verizon Cloud storage.
Finally, 5G Get More upgrades premium data to truly unlimited and upgrades the hotspot data to 50GB. It comes with both of the extras from the smaller plans, with all of the streaming features intact. This puts 5G Get More a bit ahead of T-Mobile's Magenta Max plan in hotspot data, one of the best cell phone plans for 5G.
One change to keep in mind is that Ultra Wideband hotspot usage counts towards your mobile hotspot data. If you use all of your hotspot data, speeds will be limited to 3Mbps on Ultra Wideband.
The 5G Start plan starts at $70 per line per month, with Play More and Do More both starting at $80 per month. The 5G Get More plan starts at $90 per month with a single line. All of these plans receive multi-line discounts up to five lines, and the listed price is with a $10 paper-free billing and AutoPay discount. With the three higher-cost plans, you can also get 50% off Verizon 5G Home Internet.
Verizon 5G Home Internet has also received an update with two plans. The smaller 5G Home plan comes in at $50 per month with a Wi-Fi 6 router included. The plan also comes with a Verizon Stream TV device, a Google Nest Mini, six months of Disney+ and AMC+, and one month free. Home Plus costs $70 per month and comes with all of the above, with the Disney+ and AMC+ subscriptions upgraded to 12 months and an upgrade to the Google Nest Hub Max. Both plan prices have a $10 discount for paper-free billing and AutoPay.
When you sign up for 5G Home Internet, you also get a price guarantee for two years with 5G Home and three years with 5G Home Plus.
