By and large, Verizon hasn't flinched once in its
march to LTE -- the proof is obviously going to be in the pudding, but leading up to the first commercial launches, they're talking as confidently as they ever have. Take last weeks
Network World interview with the company's CTO Tony Melone, for example, where he's once again reiterated the carrier's intention to bring 25-30 markets live commercially this year and achieve roughly a
complete overlay of its 3G network in 2013. That's nothing new or particularly interesting, but Melone's choice of language is encouraging, saying that they're "ahead of where [they] thought [they'd] be as far as site readiness goes," going on to report that the 25-30 market goal for 2010 is "looking better each day, not worse each day." That's bold, but he got a little less bold when talking about LTE voice: "The question for us will be whether our footprint will be sufficient at that point to provide customers with a good experience for voice over LTE, or whether we'll be better off offering 3G coverage for voice and 4G for data." The hesitation has us believing that an initial round of dual-mode handsets is basically a forgone conclusion, but at least we'll have the modems up and running in the meantime.
posted March 1st 2010 9:37PM
Oh my oh me. It's on!!!
Big talk from America's worst network.
Great news on the launch! When can us Canadians get on the action?
Probably not until next year at least, Bellus is still milking their HSPA+ initiative.
Chris's favorite saying is "Proof is in the pudding"
I'm wondering what will happen to CDMA when they get this LTE network up? Will they still us it? Will phones have to be CDMA and LTE?
@Drybones5
CDMA is the entire technology which verizon and sprint use...
LTE is a 4g service on CDMA, just like EV-DO is 3g on verizon. WIMAX is another form of 4g
@masta vaan LTE is the 4G for GSM which Verizon is moving to. CDMA's 4G was the never considered UMB. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra_Mobile_Broadband )
im with sprint but it sounds good.. vzw and sprint are always battaling it out in the front for the best tech...
Dual mode is a great thing. Now I can finally get data and voice at the same time (hopefully).
3G is not broken and 4G is probably all people are going to need in terms of bandwidth for years to come.
Go big red!
There's something smelly about Big Red rushing LTE to market while AT&T is taking it so slow...
Like they're about to pull an LTE/EVDO iPhone 4G out of their hat.
@Cactus
Yes, that's what everyone is expecting
@junktrunk
unlikely, because they would have to set up a LTE network for that, plus, remember how the original iphone didn't want to implement 3g because it was new? probably the same thing will happen. the next version will probably be a 3gs+ or something with more speed and another function that has been mysteriously missing from the iphone.
@masta vaan "unlikely, because they would have to set up a LTE network for that"
Uh. Isn't that what they're doing... the very point of this post? (I'm not snarking you, I don't understand what you're saying)
There's a huge expense to VZW being the first to implement LTE so widely... network equipment (like everything else) is way more expensive when it's shiny new. They ought to have something huge up their sleeve.
Otherwise, the only killer app the iPhone 4 could really introduce is a front-facing camera. AT&T would never let that happen...
Look, on paper this is awesome. LTE coming out. It's great. But the world itself isn't ready. Everyone's upgrading HSPA to go to 7.2 and 14.4 and maybe even higher speeds.
Verizon is at the end of the road. EVDO-A is stuck at 3mbps or whatever it is. ATT is clearly the faster carrier already. Gizmodo and PC World and 2 other independent labs already confirm this in the latest tests.
Who cares if Verizon actually deploys LTE first. So? At best you'll match AT&T's speeds. The US has never defined the mobile market, and once again we're going to be waiting for devices. I bet the first deployments of LTE are going to be in the form of PC cards. Devices will come later when manufacturers see a market to build devices for. Verizon's not it.
This is exactly why Apple's probably going to avoid EVDO iPhone for now. It's just not profitable. It's exactly why Verizon has gotten NO PHONES and everyone acted like the Droid was the best thing since sliced bread. Yeah, you missed out on all the other awesome smartphones out there because you were on CDMA.
So yeah, get LTE, who cares? As with all US carriers, your customers will continue to drool over the other carrier's phones because here we depend on subsidies, exclusive phones, whacked up frequencies, EVDO vs HSDPA, etc etc. We're all sheep being led around by our stupid carriers. It's the devices that matter in the end, and without a market for unlocked devices like how Europe and Asia does it, the cell market in the US will always be a few steps behind.
@dmo580 What? No good phones besides the Droid? In the last 6 months, Verizon has had all the good phones come to it....and the N1 isnt even here yet.
I do agree with you about HPSA from AT&T. It is quick, but even Engadget testers said they couldn't hold on to that speed...they often dropped down to EDGE. And with GSM's user-capacity limit, its no wonder. I do have Verizon, and while my 3G speed may not be as fast as someone elses, I know I will always have it and always be able to use it....in nearly 5 times more places than AT&T :)
And its clear everyone except Sprint is headed to LTE, so why not lead the pack? Lets face it, we all know AT&T STILL wont have 3G coverage everywhere Verizon does by 2013, let alone 4G, and in 2013 Verizon plans on having 4G everywhere it has 3G now?? You can keep your random 7.2/14.4 hotspots...ill take Verizons 4G blanketing the country.
@dmo580
Does me no good to have the fastest coverage with a ~50% reliability rating like those PC World tests say in San Francisco. Switched to Sprint, perfect signal, good speeds anywhere I go, and none of this silly, "Cannot connect to cellular data network" BS I got on my iPhone. Oh, and its WAY CHEAPER. I'm with Trocks797 though. I'd take Verizons 4g overlaid its 3G network over these "faster" speeds you say AT&T can produce. At least Verizon is reliable for the money.
@blainer did you see Verizon's numbers on smartphone? Averages in the 70s. ATT was doing 90+ in most markets. There were 2 (was it Boston?) and SF which were terrible, but it's clear that Verizon isn't exactly top notch either. It's fallen, and will fall more as more devices start clogging its network.
Sprint may be cheaper, but it's because its still losing customers. T-Mobile is cheaper too. These 2 carriers need customers.
ATT & Verizon have no problem charging high rates. They charge the exact same...
Once again, the problem of maps comes up again. Do you even go to the 3G deadzones of ATT? I got 3G all the way from SF to LA on the I-5 and streamed Pandora all the way. Will you ever visit the true deadspots? There's some coverage issues in the areas that are supposed to be covered on ATT's map, and that should be resolved, but the truly non 3G areas? I doubt anyone here even lives in those regions...
@Trocks797
AT&T's Android line up, besides the confirmed Nexus One, Dell Mini 3, and Backflip, there is the Dell Mini 5, HTC Desire, Xperia X10
Those are all phones better than the HTC Incredible, which will be the only other high end android device going to verizon that I know of.
@Drybones5
do you seriously think verizon's gonna be sitting around with only the droid for half a year? the n1 is coming out this month, and i'm sure MANY more will come out in even the first half year. motorola anounced 20 devices for this year... where so you think they will all go? the trash?
@dmo580 Dude, I don't know where in LA or the Bay Area you frequent (well actually LA has decent AT&T 3G) but in the Bay Area it's still a joke. The South Bay is one of those areas where you get a full signal on AT&T 3G until you try and use it, then it flips out and works like crap.
@dmo580
Maybe the world isn't ready for LTE yet, but when it is ready Verizon is going to be out on top. In terms of speed LTE is forecast to hit speeds of up to 100Mbps, so how is that 'matching' AT&T's speeds? Besides, it's not just about the speed, it's also about upgrading to a new system that can handle more users without outages and coverage problems. (Something that Verizon is doing better than AT&T already. Even though not technically as fast, it's still better than spotty coverage IMHO.)
Also, once the big 4 all have LTE networks up and running (which is already in the planning/execution stages) it won't be "whacked up frequencies" anymore, so handset makers will be able to easily release their phones to multiple carriers. Sure the subsidy model still sucks (along with the exorbitant ETF's) but at least we'll have diverse phone choices.