Verizon to begin pilot 5G in 11 US cities by mid-year

By Ovunc Kutlu

NEW YORK (AA) - Telecommunications giant Verizon announced Wednesday that it will begin pilot testing of 5G technology in eleven U.S. cities during the first half of this year.

Several hundred homes and businesses in Ann Arbor (MI), Atlanta (GA), Bernardsville (NJ), Brockton (MA), Dallas (TX), Denver (CO), Houston (TX), Miami (FL), Sacramento (CA), Seattle (WA) and Washington, D.C. will participate.

"Verizon's 5G build is the largest proving ground in the world and encompasses several hundred cell sites that cover several thousand customer locations," a Verizon statement read.

The company joined forces with global chip-maker giants like Ericsson, Intel, Qualcomm Technologies, and Samsung to develop the 5G technology, according to the statement.

"5G technology innovation is rapidly evolving ... the time is right to deliver the next generation of broadband services with 5G," Adam Koeppe, Vice President, Network Planning at Verizon, said in the statement.

Verizon's 5G attempt comes after the other U.S. telecommunications giant AT&T debuted its 5G technology at the beginning of January.

AT&T said in January it will begin providing 5G services in Austin and Indianapolis at connection speeds of 400 Mbps or better.

It expects "to begin reaching peak theoretical speeds of up to 1 Gbps at some cell sites in 2017", it added.