Verizon has come out and revealed some of its plans for the 2010 year with regards to LTE. Their latest press release states that they will deploy LTE in 25 to 30 markets that will cover approximately 100 million Americans.
Verizon has also stated the blatantly obvious, 4G is faster than 3G. “Verizon Wireless engineers report LTE average data rates of 5-12 Mbps on the downlink and 2-5 Mbps on the uplink in real-world environments and will offer Verizon Wireless customers mobile browsing speeds comparable to customers’ current, typical online Internet experience.”
While it’s always good to see major carriers such as Verizon touting their next generation network, more importantly is when they will have devices that support this technology? As a fast network is great, but until you have a phone or a USB stick to utilize the technology, it’s nothing more than a PR stunt.
Verizon is also playing catch up to one of its competitors, Sprint. Sprint has already deployed its 4G network that is based on WiMAX technology and is quickly adding new markets to its coverage. Although, AT&T has not announced any updates to its LTE plan that will start trials in 2010 and consumer rollout in 2011.