Verizon Wireless continues to be extremely aggressive in expanding its faster LTE based 4G wireless network. Today the company announced that it will be adding LTE speeds to a number of new locations in the US beginning on August 18.
The new cities and metro areas that will be added at that time include Ithaca, Syracuse, Albany, and Rockland County, New York; Fort Collins, Colorado; Council Bluffs, Iowa; Provo and Orem, Utah; Omaha, Nebraska, Salina, Monterey, and Bakersfield, California; and Altoona and Johnstown, Pennsylvania. In addition Verizon will expand its LTE wireless service in the metro areas of Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio. The expansion will give Verizon Wireless a total of 118 US cities and metro areas for its LTE service.
Verizon claims that by the end of 2011 it will give LTE access to 175 cities and metro areas. By contrast, its biggest rival AT&T has still yet to launch its own LTE service. It continues to claim that it will launch its rival wireless network in a few US cities later this summer. Sprint, which has been using the WiMax standard for its own 4G network, has not added any new cities to that network this year at all. However Sprint execs have said it will reveal its future 4G wireless network plans later this fall. Many have speculated that part of those plans include Sprint launching its own LTE based network.
Just a reminder: Verizon will also launch the 4G version of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet on Thursday, July 28.