Verizon's Malady: Despite Covid, fiber build is slightly ahead of schedule

Verizon has bold ambitions to have its 5G Ultra Wideband enabled in 60 cities by the end of 2020, but to do that it needs more fiber in those urban areas. Verizon CTO Kyle Malady said the company was aggressively adding fiber in those urban areas through its One Fiber program. Through One Fiber, Verizon is adding 5G nodes on its fiber across the 60 cities where it is deploying the 5G Ultra Wideband service. Verizon's One Fiber project, which has been ongoing for several years, combined all of the comglomerate's fiber needs and planning into one project. It also allows Verizon to plot out its fiber uses cases and purchasing plans across all of its sectors. In addition to densification of the wireless network and enabling wireline access, having fiber deep is key for supporting radio access networks (RAN) as well as provisioning an increasing number of small cells. Adding fiber is one way that Verizon is growing its 5G Ultra Wideband service footprint. Malady said the other way was by improving the reach of the millimeter technology to propagate and decode the signal to up to five kilometers.