Verizon's 4G LTE network ready to spread throughout America

by Steven Mostyn - Oct 7 2010, 11:29

Speaking at the CTIA Enterprise & Applications 2010 conference in San Francsisco, Lowell McAdam, president and CEO of Verizon has revealed that the American telecommunications giant’s new 4G LTE network will be launched in 38 major metropolitan areas across the United States by the close of this year.

Breaking that blanket figure down into more digestible chunks, the 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) network will cover more than 110 million Verizon customers, along with 60 commercial airports spread from coast to coast.

“We are driven by the vision to provide ubiquitous wireless broadband connectivity and mobility to rural and urban Americans alike,” outlined McAdam. “With our initial 4G LTE launch, we will immediately reach more than one-third of all Americans where they live, right from the start.”

Verizon has also said it intends to quickly expand 4G LTE coverage to include all areas held beneath Verizon’s network umbrella. However, until that happens, major metropolitan areas on the launch list include the following:

Large sections of the Northeast Corridor, including Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington D.C. and Rochester (New York); throughout Miami and south Florida, Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, New Orleans, and Charlotte (North Carolina) and Nashville (Tennessee).

Other launch areas include Chicagoland, St. Louis, the Twin Cities, Pittsburgh, major cities in Ohio, major population centres in California, along with the likes of Seattle, Phoenix, Denver and Las Vegas.

In terms of performance enhancement via its 700MHz spectrum for 4G LTE deployment, Verizon expects average data rates to be between five and 12 megabits per second (Mbps) on the downlink, and two to five megabits per second on the uplink in real-world, loaded network environments.

In related news, the 40,000 students and 15,000 faculty and staff members at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, will also be able to enjoy the associated productivity benefits of 4G LTE performance after the tech-centric establishment of higher education was also included on Verizon’s initial launch list.

Around the Web