5G
Almost every US plan says “5G included” — but the speed gap between the three spectrum tiers is huge. Low-band 5G is ~80–150 Mbps; mid-band 5G (T-Mobile UC, Verizon UW, AT&T 5G+) is 200–700 Mbps; mmWave hits 1–4 Gbps but only in specific dense pockets. Below is everything we have on the topic.
Start here
- Guide: Understanding 5G — Practical primer on the three 5G band tiers, what each US carrier deploys where, and how to figure out which tier your phone is on right now.
- Best 5G plans — 7 picks isolating the plans that actually unlock fast mid-band 5G, not just the marketing icon.
The 4 US networks (each has a different 5G strategy)
- Verizon — 5G UW — Largest mmWave footprint; C-band UW expanded across most metros. Premium tiers gate UW.
- T-Mobile — 5G UC — Largest mid-band footprint courtesy of the 2020 Sprint merger. Fastest of the big-three in most metros.
- AT&T — 5G+ — Slowest mid-band rollout (FAA altimeter dispute). Catching up post-2024.
- Dish — Boost 5G — Greenfield 5G build, narrow but expanding. Cloud-native open RAN architecture.
5G glossary terms
- 5G — The umbrella standard. The icon you see on your phone is one of three very different things.
- 5G UC — T-Mobile’s mid-band branding (Ultra Capacity, n41 2.5 GHz).
- 5G UW — Verizon’s mid-band-and-mmWave branding (Ultra Wideband).
- 5G+ — AT&T’s mid-band branding.
- 5G mid-band — The fast-but-finite range — ~1 mile reach, 200–700 Mbps speeds.
- 5G mmWave — 1–4 Gbps speeds, line-of-sight only, dense urban + venues only.
- Sub-6 GHz — Everything below 6 GHz: low-band + mid-band combined.
- C-band — The 3.7 GHz spectrum Verizon and AT&T paid $80B+ for in 2021.
- 5G SA — Standalone 5G (no LTE anchor). Required for VoNR.
- VoNR — Voice over New Radio — the 5G voice standard succeeding VoLTE.
Coverage at your address
- Verizon coverage map — County-level 5G + LTE choropleth from FCC BDC data. Click to drill down to ZIP.
- T-Mobile coverage map — Same FCC-derived dataset.
- AT&T coverage map — Same.
- Dish coverage map — Same.