Verizon Wireless has been expanding its LTE-based 4G network at a rapid pace and it doesn"t look like its going to slow down anytime soon. The company announced today that another 15 cities and metro areas in the US will have access to the LTE network beginning on September 15. Among the new cities to join the LTE party in this go round include Cleveland, Ohio; Reno, Nevada; Fargo, North Dakota; Austin, Texas, and Iowa City, Iowa. In addition, more towns in the greater San Francisco area will be added to Verizon"s LTE network.
Verizon already has over half of the US population covered by its LTE based network and plans to offer 185 million people in the US access to the network by the end of the year. It will have LTE support over all of its current 3G network by 2013. By contrast, AT&T still has yet to launch its own LTE network. On Sunday, AT&T starting offering its first LTE-based products for sale; the USBConnect Momentum 4G laptop stick for $49.99 and the Elevate 4G mobile hotspot for $69.99. On August 26, people who own the USBConnect Adrenaline laptop stick can also upgrade it to connect to AT&T"s LTE network. It is supposed to launch in only five cities in the US (Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio) sometime later this summer. The LTE network will expand to 15 US cities by the end of 2011.