Verizon 5G Home Internet Review 2020

Presenting 5G Home Internet of the House Verizon, first of its name, the wireless, queen of the download speeds.

Ahem, thanks for letting us get that out of our system. In all seriousness, Verizon 5G Home Internet is the new kid on the block and one of the few 5G residential internet services out there right now. But is it worth the price tag, and how does its download speed hold up?

Saddle up, ‘cause we’re about to dish out all the secrets, weigh the pros and cons, and talk about all the perks of Verizon 5G Home Internet.

P.S. You’ll quickly find that Verizon 5G Home Internet is pretty limited in terms of availability, which means there’s not a whole lot of information out there. We were able to get basic information from Verizon’s site and confirm the details thanks to posts by real people sharing their experiences on reddit. It’s not ideal, but it’s currently the best we’ve all got.

Current Verizon 5G Home Internet cities

• Chicago, IL
• Sacramento, CA
• Los Angeles, CA
• Houston, TX
• Indianapolis, IN

Effective 1/14/2020. Availability varies by location and is subject to change.

Verizon 5G Home Internet prices

If you can get 5G Home Internet’s top-end speeds, the price is pretty great.

Verizon 5G Home Internet starts at $70 a month, which isn’t a bad price if you can get close to its top speed of up to 940 Mbps. For comparison, Verizon’s Fios Gigabit Connection, with a download speed of up to 940 Mbps, costs $79.99 a month.*

If you’re currently a Verizon Wireless customer, you’re about to get some sugar cubes plunked in your coffee to sweeten the deal. Instead of the full $70 a month rate, wireless customers get a discounted $50 a month rate—as long as you have a $30 per month data plan at a minimum.

The best part about that price? Your taxes and fees are already included, and there are no bill increases. Excuse us while we do our happy dance.

^{*w/ Auto pay. + taxes.}

Current Verizon 5G Home Internet deals

Not only does Verizon offer a discounted monthly price to its wireless customers, but new 5G Home Internet customers may also get some pretty sweet perks like free subscriptions and devices.

Here’s a look at what you can get if you sign up for Verizon 5G Home Internet in January 2020:

• Free 5G Home Internet service for your first three months*
• Router included with plan
• Free professional equipment setup and activation
• Free YouTube TV subscription for one month†
• Free Apple TV 4K device (in select cities only)‡
• Free Disney+ subscription for 12 months°

^{Data effective 1/29/2020. Offers and availability vary by location and are subject to change. Visit verizonwireless.com/5g/home/ for full offer details, terms and conditions.
*After free trial, pay $50/mo with Auto Pay and a Verizon mobile plan of $30/mo or more. Pay $70/mo with no Verizon mobile plan. Auto pay and paperless bill required. Cancel at any time.
**Additional Wi-Fi extenders available for purchase.
†Then $49.99/mo after.
‡The technician will provide an Apple TV 4K device when the installation is complete.
° Then $6.99/mo after.}

Verizon 5G Home Internet speed and performance

Those lucky enough to get 5G Home Internet say it’s fast, but speeds do vary by location.

It seems like all of 2019 was filled with talk about 5G, the next generation of cell phone technology. (The “G” stands for “generation.”) This new tech promises to eventually reach download speeds of 10 gigabits per second (Gbps).

To put that in perspective a little, that’s 10,000 megabits per second (Mbps). And right now, most internet service providers (ISPs) offer max download speeds of 1,000 Mbps. So yeah, 5G should be pretty fast.

But hold your horses for just a minute. There’s still a lot of work to do to get 5G up to those 10 Gbps speeds. Right now, Verizon says a typical download speed for its 5G Home Internet is 300 Mbps—and if you’re lucky, you can max your 5G download speeds out at up to 940 Mbps.¹

Those are still respectable download speeds—we think most families shouldn’t need more than 300 Mbps to keep streaming and gaming smoothly.

Performance

Verizon 5G Home Internet is wireless, but that doesn’t seem to tarnish its speed performance.

Typically you’ll get better speeds and performance from a wired connection, but new technology, including a new type of encoding and higher frequencies, keeps the 5G signal strong. (P.S. You can learn more about how all this works in our 5G guide.) Those lucky enough to live in cities where Verizon 5G Home Internet is available say the 5G force is strong.

Reddit user vincetg2 got their 5G Home Internet installed in Sacramento, CA, last year. Their initial speed tests showed a peak download speed of 810 Mbps and peak upload speed of 212 Mbps—which is pretty exceptional.² Another Reddit user, austinasu in Houston, TX, said their 5G Home Internet usually gets around 450 Mbps download speeds.³

One common complaint a few Reddit users had about their Verizon 5G Home Internet service was “bufferbloat.”

Bufferbloat happens when you max out your upload bandwidth (you might see this happen if you’re livestreaming or uploading lots of large files) and your download speed drops. At the same time, your latency, or ping, goes up—some users reported latency at around 2,000 or more milliseconds (ms).^{2, 4}

We don’t expect bufferbloat to happen to most internet users, but if you upload lots of files, stream on Twitch, or game often, this issue could crop up. If you do get lag spikes in the middle of a boss pull or while you’re FaceTiming your Aunt Mimi, here’s a bufferbloat troubleshooting guide. (Though we don’t recommend trying this unless you’re pretty familiar with your router.)

Data caps

Verizon 5G Home Internet comes with no data caps. Zip, zilch, nada.

Verizon’s FAQ states that anything connected to your 5G Home Internet Wi-Fi, including your PlayStation 4, iPhone, and laptop, gets “unlimited data usage.”¹

Verizon 5G Home Internet installation and equipment

Verizon takes care of its equipment at no charge to you, and installation is a breeze.

Order up some 5G Home Internet service, and Verizon will hook you up with all the equipment you need, free of charge. That includes the following:

• Indoor and/or outdoor receiver
• Modem-and-router combo

You also have the option to add Wi-Fi extenders if you need them, but those may cost you a bit out of pocket. Verizon doesn’t specify a price, however.

As for the installation of your 5G Home Internet equipment, everything seems pretty straightforward. You can schedule your professional installation when you place your order, which is taken care of by someone from Asurion.

If you like, you can double-check that the technician standing outside your door is actually from Asurion and sent by Verizon with CheckMyBadge.com. You’ll need the technician’s badge number, which should be in your reminder email.

Verizon 5G Home Internet installation

• Available Monday–Saturday at 9 a.m. or 1 p.m. local time
• Installation typically takes 3–4 hours
• Someone age 18 or older must be present during installation
• You’ll get a reminder email the night before
• You also have the option to request a call or text message from your technician when they’re on their way

If you head home in the afternoon to let your dog out and see an Asurion tech hanging around your home before your installation is scheduled, don’t worry. They’re just testing the 5G signal outside of your home, and they shouldn’t need to go inside your house, apartment, or townhome at this time.

Reddit user vincetg2 said their installation went smoothly.² The technician asked whether they preferred an indoor or outdoor receiver, whether they were okay with the technician’s suggested placement of the receiver, where the modem and router would sit, and where they wanted the technician to drill into the wall and install the new jack.

Vincetg2 also noted that the outdoor receiver is mounted on an arm that requires four small but deep screw holes, as did the grounding box.²

“The power-over-ethernet wire they ran from the office to the grounding box probably required many screws/nails, but they hid this very well along my house’s trim, so it’s barely noticeable,” Vincetg2 said. “The only major thing they did was (drill) through from the exterior of the house and (cut) through the drywall to install the new Ethernet jack in the office.”

Equipment

One thing to note about your 5G Home Internet equipment is that, because you don’t pay anything for it, Verizon outright owns it. This is especially important if you ever need repairs or maintenance done on your equipment. You’ll need to ask Verizon to send someone out to work on your receiver—or move it.

So if your signal starts dropping or your 5G internet speeds slow down, don’t touch that receiver! Call Verizon instead.

And hey, we all know 5G technology is still fairly new, so it’s pretty awesome that Verizon also gives you free hardware upgrades for your first year of 5G Home Internet service.

Speaking of new tech, there’s a pretty good reason Verizon requires you to use their modem instead of providing your own: it’s designed to fall back to a 4G signal if your 5G signal drops. Now that’s a fail-safe we can appreciate.

Contracts and fees

No contracts, no equipment fees, and no taxes or fees tacked on? Yes, please.

Rejoice—Verizon’s 5G Home Internet comes with no long-term contracts, and your taxes and fees are already included in the price you see. Plus, there are no equipment fees. (Though Verizon does say you may have to purchase additional Wi-Fi extenders.)

Now that’s the way we like our internet service.

Service fees

There’s no fee to have your 5G Home Internet professionally installed. Nor are there activation fees, equipment fees, or early termination fees. Nothing makes us smile brighter.

Of course, if you do cancel your 5G Home Internet service, you’ll need to return your equipment within 21 days. Otherwise, you’ll have to pay what Verizon calls a “substantial” equipment non-return fee.⁵ (Oh, by the way, some places on Verizon’s site say you have 30 days to return your equipment, while others say 21 days. We’d go with 21 days and play it safe if we were you.)

• Equipment non-return fee: “Substantial” fee if you don’t return your equipment within 21 days after canceling your service.⁵

Customer service

Overall, wireless customer service is sketchy, but there is hope.

Verizon’s 5G Home Internet is serviced out of its wireless department. If we just went off wireless customer service ratings alone, things would look pretty bleak. The wireless industry as a whole doesn’t do so well in the customer service department.

However, there are a few glimmers of hope. A couple Reddit users, like austinasu, noted that Verizon was quick to send technicians over when their signal dropped.³

And camelspiders, a user on the official Verizon community forum, noted that their customer service rep was helpful when they needed to update the firmware on their router because it wasn’t swapping to 4G when the 5G signal dropped.⁶

Recap: Is Verizon 5G Home Internet good?

Verizon 5G Home Internet is a promising new technology for a pretty decent price that we hope to see expand to more cities across the US.

Right now, most 5G Home Internet users see fast download and upload speeds. And between the flat rate of $70 a month and multiple bonus offers, 5G Home Internet seems like a great deal if you’re lucky enough to get it.

• Prices and plans: If you’re already a Verizon Wireless customer with a data plan that costs $30 or more, this is quite a deal. And even if you’re not a Verizon customer yet, if you can land the top-end of Verizon’s 5G speeds at up to 940 Mbps, you’re still looking at a pretty good price.
• Speed: Verizon says 5G Home Internet speeds typically sit around 300 Mbps, which is great for most streamers and gamers. Some locations may even see closer to the top speed of up to 940 Mbps, which is great if you run a home office or livestream. Oh and, your 5G Home Internet comes with unlimited data.
• Contracts, equipment, and fees: No annual contract, no installation fee, no equipment fees. We’re in heaven. The only thing you might pay for is a Wi-Fi extender or two.
• Customer service: Verizon’s not known for great customer service (nor are most wireless providers), but we’ve seen a few forum posts from customers who were well taken care of. Our hope is trending upward.

Sources

1. Verizon, “Verizon 5G Home Internet FAQs”
2. Reddit, “I Got 5G Home Internet Installed This Week and It Is Pretty Cool!”
3. Reddit, “Those of You Who Signed Up for Verizon 5G Home Internet, How Has Their Service Held Up?”
4. Reddit, “People Who Got 5G Home Internet, Did It Affect Gaming Latency?”
5. Verizon, “Verizon 5G Home Internet Terms of Service”
6. Verizon Community, “Residential 5G Not Failing Over to 4G”