WASHINGTON (REUTERS) - Verizon Communications Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd on Monday (Dec 3) confirmed long-held industry expectations they would seek to steal a march on Apple Inc by launching US 5G smartphones in the first half of 2019.

Samsung has partnered with Verizon on its 5G Home offering since the beginning of 2018 and has been a leader in the 5G space for even longer. Samsung  has been an active contributor, with Verizon, to develop standards that make 5G deployment possible and was the first company to earn FCC approval for its 5G commercial products.

Verizon 5G mobility service will go live in early 2019 and expand rapidly. Once available, Samsung 5G smartphone users will immediately benefit from the speed and capacity of Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband network, and over time, experience all the new and exciting services, games and features that will be available.

There aren’t any details yet on the device itself, but Bloomberg previously reported that the two companies were in talks to bring a 5G version of the upcoming Galaxy S10 to the US.



While Verizon is leading the charge to trial 5G in some cities next year, industry analysts say the higher-speed networks are unlikely to be widely available until the middle of the next decade.

Benefit of 5G

5G mobility service will provide massive bandwidth, greater opportunities for connectivity and improved network reliability. When fully implemented, it will offer capacity and download speed many times faster than today’s 4G LTE network. Along with network latency that is faster than the blink of an eye.