Verizon has ramped up its 5G rollout, with the US operator revealing its 5G service is now available to more than 175 million people.

The operator confirmed it's on course to offer nationwide coverage of its ‘5G Ultra Wideband’ service by Q1 2023.

The coverage of more than 175 million people in the US is a significant milestone, according to the company, as it comes 13 months ahead of schedule (the original target was to cover 175 million by the end of 2023).

In a detailed update, Verizon confirmed that it's also activating 100MHz of C-Band spectrum in many markets, which is a significant step up from the 60 MHz of spectrum available when deployment first began.

Verizon will have up to 200MHz of C-Band spectrum deployed once all of its licensed spectrum is made available, which will push faster speeds and capacity.

“Our customers don’t stand still and neither does our network. Today, more than one out of every two Americans now have access to 5G Ultra Wideband. We know our customers rely on our service every day and we work for them – continuously enhancing, expanding, and improving our wireless network,” said Hans Vestberg, Chairman and CEO of Verizon.

Meanwhile, Verizon is also gearing up to switch off its 3G service, with the carrier on course to shut the service down by December 31, 2022.

Verizon is the last of the three mobile network operators in the US to switch off 3G services, with AT&T doing so in February of this year, before T-Mobile did the same during the summer.

DCD recently did a feature on what the 2G and 3G shutdown mean for 5G - read about it here.