Sacramento’s 5G story dimmed by legal spat involving Verizon, XG

Sacramento (CA) has come to stand as an example of the complexities involved in actually getting 5G services turned on. Sacramento’s journey toward 5G started in 2016 with an agreement between the city and a company called XG Communities.  The agreement called for XG to identify and organize a database of city assets—namely, street light poles, conduit, fiber and utility circuitry—that could be made available to carriers that wanted to pay for the rights to install small cells on city property. However, a year later, Sacramento was approached by Verizon to be one of the operator’s first 5G cities, and so it inked a separate $100 million deal with Verizon that went around its agreement with XG Communities. That deal gave Verizon access to city infrastructure in return for free Wi-Fi in public parks and other amenities. As luck would have it, the same day Verizon launched its fixed 5G service in Sacramento in Oct, a Superior Court judge ruled that several key provisions of the city’s agreement with Verizon violated the city’s contract with XG. The ruling calls into question the legality of some aspects of Verizon’s network in Sacramento, and a judge has since rendered a final ruling that requires the city to make good on its contract with XG.