Verizon to blanket 'one third' of America with LTE this year, double coverage in 15 months

Remember when we heard that Verizon Wireless just might be able to bump its commercial LTE rollout to the first quarter of 2010? Man, talk about having our hopes and dreams dashed. Here at CTIA, we heard a few details on the company's most up-to-date deployment plans, and it sounds like things are pretty well locked into place at this point. Tony Melone, the company's Senior Vice President and CTO, seemed remarkably enthused that a bona fide LTE network would be launching "in the not too distant future," and when pressed for specifics, he stated that they would launch "25 to 30 networks this year, covering one third of America by the end of 2010." Beyond that, we're looking at a footprint twice that size "15 months" after the initial rollout, and by the end of 2013, the company's 4G coverage map will be the same size, "if not larger," than its existing 3G map. Of course, the carrier insisted that they wouldn't be abandoning 3G advancement while being fixated on 4G, noting that it was moving "fast and aggressively" on both fronts, with hopes that its LTE network would eventually eclipse even the 3G networks (in terms of coverage size) of competitors. Them's bold words, VZW, and we'll be carefully watching to see if that really does come to fruition.

[Brushsyn17 Posted Mar 24th 2010 5:09PM]

@spodee Put your iPhone on edge. I'll bet you come close to his speeds. Close enough you wouldn't know the difference. Big red are liars!!!!

[Trocks797 Posted Mar 26th 2010 1:29AM]

@Brushsyn17

I get much faster, around 2.3 meg down, 900kpbs up in ky on verizon. Heres a better test. Take your AT&T phone anywhere where there is a crowd and try your test again...No internet? No calls going through? Ohhh, the GSM is overloaded. Bet that CDMA looks pretty sweet now...

[Goaliegeek Posted Mar 24th 2010 4:47PM]

So what includes in the 1/3? I hope Denver and Colorado.

[Hazdaz Posted Mar 24th 2010 5:04PM]

Is there even a single phone out right now that even supports LTE?

Is the network actually AHEAD of the handset technology now?

If Verizon is even 1/2 serious about this news, it would be nice to get a phone that supports that speed especially if you are going to have that headset for 2 years or more.

[Brushsyn17 Posted Mar 24th 2010 5:07PM]

Let's just make sure big red really is getting 4g. What they call 3g is not much better than AT&T 's 2g. So watch out map boys. I'm watching

[raionyuki Posted Mar 24th 2010 6:42PM]

What's the point of rolling out the huge wireless bandwidth improvements when mid day the thing that is slowing me down is the internet bandwidth. Both Verizon and AT&T need to work and scaling both at the same time. That way we don't end up with 4G connections with dial up speed connections to the internet.

[SprintTech Posted Mar 24th 2010 7:16PM]

Yep, and that is all determined by the amount of data lines coming out of the individual cell sites.For example, if you have a single cell site with 2 T1s for voice, and 4 for data, you get 23x4 channels for simultaneous connections.

[TGrant Posted Mar 24th 2010 8:49PM]

These 4G networks are blossoming like CrAzY !!!!!

[Binkious Posted Mar 24th 2010 9:21PM]

I give credit to Verizon for rolling this out years before AT&T

I am a iPhone user who is disgusted at the service that I get.

When AT&T does switch, I expect AT&T to be years behind Verizon

[EagleyeSmith Posted Mar 24th 2010 10:45PM]

@Binkious
So, why don't you just switch your service to one of the other carriers?

[dillion3384 Posted Mar 24th 2010 9:35PM]

Awesome I will soon be able to have broadband everywhere and stream HD movies to my phone!!! Hold on wait, about the only place I don't have broadband access is in my car, while I'm driving!!!

Do I really need to spend extra dollars to have that much bandwidth on my phone? What am I gonna do with it, watch HD movies on a 3.7" screen? I mean I would love to have it, but I don't care to pay extra for it.
Hey Verizon, forget about 4G and bring me a damn Iphone, Evo, mini5, or I would be happy for the long awaited NexusOne!!

[racerbmw Posted Mar 24th 2010 10:26PM]

roll out the droid update first

[Hazdaz Posted Mar 24th 2010 10:44PM]

The sooner Verizon gets LTE going, the sooner they get the iPhone, because there is no chance in hell that Apple is going to bother making a headset for Verizon's older network when the new one is only a year away.

If Verizon's 1/3 LTE coverage stays on schedule for this year, then I predict the iPhone for Verizon gets announced early next year.

[SprintTech Posted Mar 24th 2010 11:32PM]

@Hazdaz The only way they would make an LTE iPhone is if it had another radio to fall back on, GSM, CDMA, etc. for voice/data.

What good is an iPhone if you are in an area with no LTE? Might as well get an iPod Touch :)

[TheCookieMomma Posted Mar 26th 2010 2:50PM]

I can't get too overly excited about this, since we live in one of those massive gray areas at the bottom. Oh, well. Someday, we'll be considered real boys and girls.