C-Band 5G is the newest addition to the Verizon family. What does that mean for Android users and what Android phones can use C-Band 5G?
Verizon and AT&T are starting to rollout out C-Band 5G coverage for their users in the US, bringing a whole new set of frequencies into the 5G game. So what is C-Band 5G and what Android phones are eligible for it? In general, there are a couple of different variations of 5G. First, there’s the low-band variation, which is also referred to as sub6. Sub6 gets a much larger area of coverage but sacrifices speed in doing so. Even though low-band 5G is the slowest player in the 5G game, it’s still faster than 4G LTE. The other familiar version of 5G is mmWave. This standard sacrifices coverage for speed, reaching incredible speeds for 5G customers. Unfortunately, the caveat to this is sudden coverage loss and lack of connectivity indoors. Verizon’s C-Band is finally rearing its head as the middle child between the two. Operating between 3.7GHz and 3.98GHz, C-Band is able to provide a much larger blanket of coverage while delivering faster speeds than low-band coverage. Not to mention, you can obtain a strong C-Band 5G signal even indoors with Verizon and AT&T. The addition of this standard by these carriers is a welcome one, seeing as low-band 5G doesn’t seem to impress, and mmWave isn’t available for most of the US. Bridging the gap between the two, C-Band will be able to reach much more of the US while providing very fast speeds – generally anywhere from 500Mbps to 800Mbps, according to users on the Verizon subreddit.
