Hands-on with Verizon's speedy LTE 4G network

by Steve Ragan - Dec 1 2010, 22:57

Earlier this afternoon, Verizon Wireless announced that its LTE 4G network officially launches this week, with an initial rollout to 110 million people in 38 cities. The Tech Herald was rather lucky to get some hands-on time with the new network. It’s fast--extremely so--and the new price plans are affordable to boot.

Verizon’s LTE (Long Term Evolution) 4G network starts rolling on December 5. The initial deployment focuses on business users, as the only way to access the new network is via the VL600 4G USB modem. While starting with 38 cities and 60 airports, Verizon says it plans to reach all existing 3G coverage areas by 2013.

While today’s announcement is great, and the modem test was phenomenal, the real question remain: when will the handsets be available? According to Verizon, handsets will start shipping in mid-2011, but there is a good deal of speculation pointing to Q1 next year, with more in the summer. So far, Nokia Siemens, Cisco, and Tekelec are on board, with more to follow.

On hand to speak to us at the Verizon Wireless Store in Plainfield, Indiana, was Verizon’s Damon King. After the test, we spoke to him about the use of 4G on phones. For example, does a phone need to be this fast? The benefit of 4G on Netbooks and notebooks is clear, but what about smartphones?

King told us the largest improvement will be video conferencing, commenting that: “Being able to use that level of video on the phone will have a huge impact on businesses.”

At the same time, for the typical consumer, the added bandwidth of 4G will mean less congestion and better usage of applications of all kinds. Take, for example, the ability to watch the latest TV shows from Hulu Plus on your mobile device, or the newest viral video on YouTube.

As it stands now, 3G can do it, but depending on the area you are in, there may be some issues with quality. Verizon is banking on the fact that LTE will make this once choppy and buffered experience a breeze, with smoother video thanks to the lower latency.

If the iPhone ever makes it to Verizon's network, it would be best if it was the 4G model. The network improvements will seriously help with FaceTime usage, since data and voice can move at the same time. In addition, the countless offerings from Apple's App Store will benefit from Verizon's use of the 700MHz spectrum for LTE, as network congestion is still a worry for users of the popular device.

Moreover, when the 4G handsets built around Android make it to market, they will see an improvement as well, for the same reasons the iPhone would benefit from 4G.

You could argue that Verizon is late to the 4G game. Sprint Nextel has WiMAX already, and T-Mobile is using HSPA+. AT&T is said to be deploying HSPA+ as well, but not much is known about the rollout rate or when the service will be implemented, this is in addition to AT&T’s plans of delivering LTE service in the future.

However, if you follow the International Telecommunication Union Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R), then none of the aforementioned vendors are offering true 4G. This is because the ITU-R has set 4G targets of 100Mbps when moving, and 1Gbps while stationary.

[More reading on ITU-R and 4G itself can be found here and here]

No matter how you spin it, Verizon’s offering is fast. When we tested the LTE 4G network, right next to the 3G network, the performance difference was just shameful. The 3G network looked and felt sluggish, it was like comparing a blimp to a jet fighter.

Well, perhaps not quite, but the difference between Verizon's 4G and 3G cannot be understated. The same can be said for anyone who has used the older data network on Sprint or T-Mobile and then moved up to 4G. The speed boost is truly tremendous.

In addition to the normal speed test, we sat down with King and loaded the current Yogi Bear movie trailer on Hulu. We got 25 seconds into the trailer on the 4G connection before the 3G computer even started streaming.

Honestly, it was like watching a commercial for an ISP where the webpage loads almost instantly. Only this time it wasn’t hyped marketing, the webpage was less then a foot away.

The modem, a VL600 4G model, will be available Sunday, December 5, and costs $99.99 USD after a $50 USD rebate an a two-year service agreement. A second modem, the Pantech UML290, runs at the same price and will be available Sunday December 5, as well.

Verizon’s 4G data plans run to $50.00 USD per month with a 5GB data limit. The 10GB month plan will run to $80.00 USD. Overages are $10.00 USD per gigabyte above the monthly ceiling.

The images below show the testing station, the new 4G modem, and the two speed test results. For curious readers, the computers in the images are HP 8440p Elites equipped with Windows 7 Professional (32 bit) and powered by Intel's i5 processor and 2GB of RAM.

Testing Desk: