"I presume this is a high frequency microwave system." Verizon's 5G network is mmWave. The wavelength is about 1 mm long.
"The FCC redefined the lower end of the mmWave range in the U.S. to begin in the upper range of the Super High Frequency zone, starting at 24GHz, crossing over into EHF on the way to 47GHz, which is currently the top end of the spectrum allocated for 5G." https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/what-is-mmwave-high-band-5g-explained/ The interesting part of the story according to Toms Guide is that Verizon spent a lot of $ to build out their 1st gen 5G network that most of its customers couldn't access. High speed if you're within range of a tower. It turns out that the "c-band" is the sweet spot for 5G that provides a good balance of performance & range that Verizon believes will provide 5G coverage to a 100 million people. https://www.tomsguide.com/news/verizon-5g-coverage-map-plans-phones-and-home-internet So in reality, this is less about direct competition w. Comcast than it's that we screwed up, our customers and investors had a really big problem with that and here's how we're going to fix it. The FCC was able to carve out 280MHz of spectrum in this band — the 3.7–3.98GHz frequencies — for use by 5G operators. This became part of the landmark 2020–2021 FCC auction in which Verizon paid a record-breaking $45.4 billion to get its hands on this essential new spectrum.
