Verizon Wireless continues to expand its LTE-based 4G network to more and more locations in the US. Last week the company officially turned on the LTE wireless switch in 19 new US cities. Today Verizon announced that July 21 will see another set of new cities and metro areas gaining access to the faster networking speeds for 4G smartphones and laptop PC devices.
The new cities that will be added to the Verizon LTE roster on that date include a number of locations based in the southeastern US including Charleston, South Carolina, Raleigh, North Carolina, Chattanooga and Knoxville, Tennessee, Augusta, Georgia, Huntsville, Alabama and others. In addition, Verizon will expand the 4G wireless area in the Los Angeles and San Diego metro areas on that date. Verizon says that users of its LTE-based network will see data download speeds of between 5 to 12 Mbps and between 2 to 5 Mbps for upload speeds.
The expansion of Verizon"s LTE network comes on the heels of the news that new smartphone customers will no longer have access to the company"s unlimited data price plan starting on July 7. On that date, Verizon"s new customers will have to pick between a number of different data tiers for different prices. Current Verizon smartphone customers will still be under the old unlimited data plan and there are rumors that even if those customers upgrade to a new smartphone, they will still be able to continue to use their phones under the old unlimited data rate.