Why Verizon will be a surprise winner in the coming 5G world

Fifth-generation wireless is going to change American business in ways most people can’t imagine. And the groundwork is being laid right now.

At an investor conference last week, Ronan Dunne, the chief executive of Verizon (VZ) Consumer Group, casually announced that 5G Home — its fixed wireless service — was coming to every market where the new wireless standard is deployed.

This is a huge new opportunity.

In fairness, there is plenty of reason to be skeptical. The hype surrounding 5G is enormous. The technology is supposed to usher in everything from self-driving cars to remote robotic surgery.

There’s a lot of fantastical stuff to wrap your head around.

Except that 5G is dependent on spectrum. The greater the spectrum, the faster the possible network speeds.

Millimeter wave, the fastest 5G standard, could be 200x faster than a typical LTE connection. But it’s also notoriously finicky. The mostly line-of-sight signals don’t travel much beyond 200 yards.

This means they will have a hard time penetrating walls. They also seriously degrade in bad weather.

As a result, getting reliable 5G in the wild requires a massive investment in new infrastructure. Hundreds of thousands of new radios and switches need to be installed.

So, wireless carriers are moving slowly. But they are moving in the right direction.

Verizon announced in April that it would deploy 5G in parts of Chicago and Minneapolis. These two Midwest cities were the first of 30 planned launches in 2019.

More recently, Verizon inked a partnership with the NFL to bring blazing-fast 5G to 13 stadiums. In many of these cities, the gridiron will be the only place the speedier network is operational.

The alternative is slower 5G networks that use less spectrum. Unlike millimeter wave, these networks will operate more like LTE, with slightly faster network speeds.

Wireless companies should be able to beam into homes multi-gigabit internet speeds without the cost of laying expensive fiber.

Customers will simply turn on their new 5G routers, and presto — they’ll have connections fast enough to stream 8K video, or seamlessly run automation software.

Last September, Verizon launched 5G Home services in Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles and Sacramento. The $70 monthly service bundled a free Google Chromecast Ultra streaming dongle or an Apple TV. It also comes with one month of YouTube TV, a low-cost cable TV alternative.

It was a eureka moment …

For the first time, wireless companies had a legitimate alternative to wireline telephone and cable TV providers. And the timing was perfect. Higher cable bills, and the ubiquity of streaming media services like Netflix (NFLX) is pushing consumers to cut the cord with pay TV providers more than ever before.

According to an August note from eMarketer, cord-cutters increased 19.2% in 2019. Analysts at the market research firm predict 25% of households will drop traditional TV by 2022.

Related post: TV+: Apple’s future depends upon this dramatic moment

The subscription bleed is causing an inflection point. The number of households in the U.S. without cable TV is quickly approaching pay-TV households.

AT&T (T) operates the largest telephone network in the country. Through its DirecTV unit, it also has a substantial pay-TV business. Managers can see the writing on the wall. To fight back, they are investing aggressively in content for HBO, the company’s streaming platform.

The Hollywood Reporter noted Friday that Warner Media, an AT&T division, signed famed film director and producer J.J. Abrams to a $250 million deal. The “Star Wars” director will create film, TV and game content exclusively to bolster the digital business.

It’s a brand-new world turned upside down by 5G. The new access to America’s living rooms means new business models. It means new players, and new opportunities.

• Disney (DIS) is getting ready to launch a media streaming service with the combined assets of Marvel, Pixar, 21st Century Fox and Disney Studios, among others.

• Apple (AAPL) will release nine shows Nov. 1 under its Apple TV+ banner.

• And Netflix, the streaming leader, is spending heavily to enhance its network.

The entire broadcast media industry is in a state of flux. The catalyst is faster networks and the prospect of direct access to America’s living rooms.

Investors should not underestimate the impact this will ultimately have on profitability for companies like Verizon.

While there’s a lot of hype surrounding 5G as it begins to roll out across the country, there’s one BIG secret nobody knows about. And that’s how to unlock 5G profits for years to come.

There’s a 93% chance you could make good money off 5G with this secret right now. Click here to discover it.

Best wishes,
Jon D. Markman