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Verizon may have a big iPhone 12 launch gift in store for 5G-hungry Apple fans

By Adrian Diaconescu

Published: Oct 12, 2020, 5:10 PM

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Verizon may have a big iPhone 12 launch gift in store for 5G-hungry Apple fans

It was just a couple of days ago that we warned potential buyers of Apple's impending iPhone 12-series devices in the US they had to prepare to switch to T-Mobile in order to take full advantage of the connectivity upgrades of these highly anticipated 5G handsets, but before actually going through with a carrier change, you might want to wait for tomorrow's big event.

That's because Verizon seems to be working on delivering a long overdue breakthrough to its subscribers on the exact same day that the iPhone 12 5G quartet is expected to see daylight.

Take that, T-Mobile!

While tomorrow's nationwide 5G launch is by no means etched in stone, multiple Redditors appear to have discovered concrete evidence out in the wild supporting this theory, with PCMag's own tests adding fuel to the speculation fire and an unverified source of ours claiming to "100% confirm" the DSS rollout is indeed scheduled to take place between 1 pm and 3 pm EST on Tuesday, October 13.

Said anonymous tipster purportedly works "in the mobile industry", where rumors have been rampant for a while now that Big Red was close to matching T-Mobile's market-leading 5G footprint. Apparently, the nation's largest wireless service provider is gearing up to cover 62 percent of the US population with Sub-6GHz 5G right off the bat, which would be a pretty incredible achievement.

Speed test performed on Verizon's mmWave-based 5G Ultra Wideband network

Although we really can't verify the reliability of this anonymous "industry" source just yet, Verizon's execs themselves have repeatedly hinted at this exact breakthrough and timeline in the past. Given that Apple is expected to quickly eclipse Samsung's global 5G smartphone sales and pretty much make the new cellular standard mainstream all of a sudden, it definitely makes sense for Big Red to want a piece of that juicy pie.

Of course, Verizon does already offer a 5G mobile service, but due to the limitations of the mmWave technology, this is only available in a tiny fraction of the country, not to mention that the blazing fast "Ultra Wideband" signal is almost astonishingly easy to drop while on the move, inside of buildings, and even behind obstacles like walls and trees.

An industry game changer? Not so fast!

With Dynamic Spectrum Sharing, aka DSS, the availability problem will be solved by essentially switching existing 4G LTE channels to 5G and vice versa depending on real-time customer demand. As ingenious as that may sound, the technology comes with its fair share of flaws, substantially downgrading the speeds made possible by mmWave-based 5G networks.

It remains to be seen if Verizon's new 5G service will be able to deliver even the slightest upgrades over possibly the best 4G LTE network available in the US today, and perhaps more importantly, if T-Mobile and AT&T's "nationwide" 5G signals will get a worthy contender in terms of speeds.

Keep in mind that, at least according to one fairly recent rumor, three of Apple's four iPhone 12 models are set to exclusively support Sub-6GHz 5G connectivity rather than being compatible with all 5G flavors, mmWave included.

As far as Android handsets are concerned, PCMag believes all of Verizon's existing 5G models "released after February 2020" will be able to tap into the carrier's nationwide DSS service, although a software update might be required to enable the functionality. There's even a possibility you'll need Android 11 to take advantage of Big Red's Magenta-rivaling technological advance, which could lead to a lengthy wait for a lot of people.

But before getting too excited or panicked here, it's probably wise to wait for the carrier to make the full, detailed announcement, which may well be timed to coincide with the iPhone 12 5G launch tomorrow.

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Adrian, a mobile technology enthusiast since the Nokia 3310 era, has been a dynamic presence in the tech journalism field, contributing to Android Authority, Digital Trends, and Pocketnow before joining PhoneArena in 2018. His expertise spans across various platforms, with a particular fondness for the diversity of the Android ecosystem. Despite the challenges of balancing full-time parenthood with his work, Adrian's passion for tech trends, running, and movies keeps him energized. His commitment to mid-range smartphones has led to an eclectic collection of devices, saved from personal bankruptcy by his preference for 'adequate' over 'overpriced'.