SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Verizon recently made major upgrades to the network serving customers in San Francisco, California, providing the Bay Area with an advanced technology platform for meaningful innovation. The upgrades are part of a multi-year network architecture redesign to stay ahead of the exponential growth in data usage, update the technology on the network, pave the way for personalized customer experiences, and provide a platform for businesses and developers to drive innovation.
In the city of San Francisco, the technology hub of the world, 80% of the population is now covered with 5G ultra-broadband services using C-band spectrum. However, connectivity to the network is just the bare minimum of what customers need to drive innovation. Given the variety of use cases running on networks, it is important to consider their different network requirements. Networks must serve IoT devices that are very sparsely connected and stay in place, smartphones with endless possibilities to consume data in a highly mobile environment, and complex solutions like augmented reality that require massive computing capacities at the network edge. Reaching new, advanced levels of innovation and digital transformation in our society requires a fundamental transformation of the networks on which our world runs. New 5G solutions will all depend heavily on the scalability, programmability, flexibility and scalability of upgraded networks, and the San Francisco engineering team has been aggressively deploying upgrades to make the local area network robust, secure and reliable for innovation development.
Network upgrades in San Francisco include deploying new cellular sites to expand coverage and capacity in local communities and places where large gatherings are held, introducing new frequencies for wireless connectivity, adding more capacity to fiber optic cables, and more Transmitting data through the network, and integrating advanced technologies to increase efficiency and add bandwidth to the cellular network to accommodate new services such as wireless Internet services for homes and businesses. The special features of the upgrades include:
-
Mid-band spectrum: Until this year, Verizon in San Francisco was limited to using 60MHz of the C-band spectrum it secured in the recent government auction, but by the end of this year, San Francisco customers will be doing so be able to take advantage of 140MHz C-Band, more than doubling the spectrum available for 5G Ultra Wideband. This additional spectrum will supercharge the service, providing significantly higher speeds, much larger capacity for more customers, and more robust services.
-
High-band spectrum: In addition to offering 5G services in the C-band spectrum, Verizon has aggressively deployed 5G services using millimeter wave (mmWave), its premium high-band spectrum that enables extremely high speeds and massive capacities. Verizon engineers have deployed more than 400 small cells across the Bay Area offering 5G services on the mmWave spectrum.
-
Fiber Upgrades: The addition of 5G services and the many additional wireless solutions allow far more data to be carried over San Francisco’s wireless network. This exponential increase in data being transmitted in and out of the cellular cells serving the community requires upgraded fiber optic cable connections. Fiber optic cables are used to carry data between cellular sites and connect those sites to the rest of the network. Verizon has increased the capacity of fiber optic connections at many cell phone sites in the San Francisco area, allowing them to carry ten times the amount of data.
-
Advanced Technologies: San Francisco was among the first communities in the United States to take advantage of edge computing technology. Mobile Edge Compute (MEC) brings technology resources closer to the customer. Data is processed and stored at the edge of the network, not in a remote data center, significantly reducing latency. MEC provides both IT service environment and cloud computing capabilities to enable real-time enterprise. In addition to MEC, engineers in San Francisco have implemented M-MIMO (massive multi-in, multi-out) antenna configurations. Using multiple antennas at the cellular site and in consumer devices reduces interference to the signal transmitted through the air and increases customer throughput for better performance. Finally, engineers in the San Francisco area are using a technology called carrier aggregation. With Verizon’s Deep Spectrum portfolio of low-band, mid-band, and high-band spectrum, engineers aggregate spectrum in various combinations to increase data speed, throughput, and performance. In the Bay Area, engineers have used various combinations of frequencies with up to seven channels and carrier aggregation to maximize performance.
Verizon at venues throughout the Bay Area
Verizon built its network to serve customers when service is critical. Verizon owns and operates an extensive DAS system at the Chase Center, covering all seating areas, plazas (for concerts), halls, suites, underground parking, 3rd and 16th street entrances, locker rooms, offices and outdoor retail spaces. Additionally, Verizon engineers deployed 20mmWave nodes to cover bucket seats with their premium 5G ultra-wideband service.
During the Central Subway’s SFMTA debut in January 2023, Verizon was the only operator serving the tunnels and subway stations. Verizon currently serves Tunnels and these stations: Yerba Buena/Moscone, Union Square/Market Street and Chinatown/Rose Pak. The DAS will be expanded to other tunnels and stations in the near future.
Verizon Innovation Lab opens in San Francisco
As a result of significant network upgrades in the Bay Area, Verizon and key innovation partners have chosen the Bay Area for Verizon’s newly opened Innovation Lab to fuel the innovation ecosystem. This 27,000 square foot facility houses customers with integrated spaces for collaborative products and solutions, as well as an active lab environment for development and testing. The space includes both commercial and residential 5G networks, NSA and IMS cores, multiple RF shielded rooms and a full private MEC portfolio for developers. Verizon also has Innovation Labs in Los Angeles and Boston.
