Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg (pictured) flagged the planned rollout of dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS) on the operator’s network as a key feature as its 5G deployments continue.

Speaking at an investor conference, Vestberg explained the technology will enable flexible allocation of spectrum in the network to 3G, 4G or 5G, depending on what type of device a user has. It plans to deploy the feature in 2020.

“Then we don’t need to discuss if it’s 4G or 5G: whatever phone you have is going to use it.”

Vestberg also discussed the need to migrate customers to next generation handsets. This week, Verizon began offering the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G, the first handset available from the operator with the technology built in, which Vestberg said achieved speeds of 1.5Gb/s in tests on its network in Chicago.

Verizon plans to continue expanding its 5G network in urban areas where data usage is high. But the CEO added within the “next few years, I think the majority of our map will have 5G”.

Partnerships
As 5G enables more use cases, Vestberg said Verizon will look to partner with other companies in areas where it doesn’t have expertise.

“I don’t see us developing software for robotics. There are far better companies than us. But…there might be areas like telematics where we are really strong, where we have the software…Generally, we’re a little bit more inclined to do big partnerships where we are leveraging our network, the best network, our distribution and our brand.”

He gave the operator’s recent deal with YouTube as an example of how one such partnership might work, in that case offering video services to customers without having the need for its own OTT app.