Wireless carriers have spent years pounding each other with discounts like family plans, taxes-included offers, unlimited data and free Netflix. Now they're putting their targets on the cable industry.  

Verizon Communications plans to launch the nation's first 5G -- or fifth generation -- wireless service in four cities next week. Using new frequencies that beam data straight to home receivers, the phone giant promises to match or beat the fastest cable offerings and deliver the ultra-HD videos consumers have come to expect on their living-room sets.  

Even with its limitations -- potential interruptions caused by weather, the need for thousands more antennas -- 5G could become a new cord-cutting option for almost 90 million U.S. households that now get broadband, phone and TV via cable or satellite. And if the wireless industry's history is any guide, it'll be cheaper, a break for consumers who pay $150 a month or more for those services now.  

"The idea that wireless was a risk to cable broadband didn't make sense, until now," said Reed Hundt, the former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.