Verizon Wireless just announced that it will activate its 4G LTE network in 28 new markets on Thursday. The new markets include Decatur and Huntsville, Alabama; Colorado Springs, Colorado; Lakeland and Sarasota-Bradenton, Florida; Augusta, Georgia; Hilo, Honolulu, Kahului-Wailuku and Lahaina, Hawaii; Carbondale, Illinois; Wichita, Kansas; Louisville, Kentucky; Baton Rouge and Hammond, Louisiana; Springfield, Massachusetts.; Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point and Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina; Toledo, Ohio; Tulsa, Oklahoma.; Portland, Oregon; Wilkes Barre/Scranton, Pennsylvania; Charleston, South Carolina; Chattanooga and Knoxville, Tennessee; Olympia and Tacoma, Washington; and Charleston, West Virginia. Verizon Wireless also said that it will expand the 4G LTE footprints already available in Phoenix, Arizona; Los Angeles and San Diego, California; Las Vegas, Nevada; Northern New Jersey; Dallas-Forth Worth and San Antonio, Texas; and Seattle, Washington. On Thursday, the carrier’s LTE network will be available in a total of 102 markets. Read on for the full press release.

ON THURSDAY, VERIZON WIRELESS’ 4G LTE NETWORK WILL BE AVAILABLE IN MORE THAN 100 MARKETS

Wireless Leader Turns On 28 Additional 4G LTE Markets and Expands Its 4G LTE Network in Eight Cities On July 21

BASKING RIDGE, N.J. – Verizon Wireless is turning on the world’s most advanced wireless network in 28 additional markets this week, bringing the blazingly fast speed of 4G LTE to a total of 102 cities across the country.  Today, consumers and businesses can choose from nine 4G devices – including three smartphones, a tablet, two hotspots and three USB modems – to connect to the fastest 4G LTE network in the country.

The new areas where Verizon Wireless’ 4G LTE network will be available Thursday include Decatur and Huntsville, Ala.; Colorado Springs, Colo.; Lakeland and Sarasota-Bradenton, Fla.; Augusta, Ga.; Hilo, Honolulu, Kahului-Wailuku and Lahaina, Hawaii; Carbondale, Ill.; Wichita, Kan.; Louisville, Ky.; Baton Rouge and Hammond, La.; Springfield, Mass.; Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point and Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; Toledo, Ohio; Tulsa, Okla.; Portland, Ore.; Wilkes Barre/Scranton, Pa.; Charleston, S.C.; Chattanooga and Knoxville, Tenn.; Olympia and Tacoma, Wash; and Charleston, W.Va.  The company is also expanding its 4G LTE network in Phoenix, Ariz.; Los Angeles and San Diego, Calif.; Las Vegas, Nev.; Northern New Jersey;  Dallas-Ft. Worth and San Antonio, Texas; and Seattle, Wash.

“On Thursday, when we light up 28 additional 4G LTE markets, we will offer consumers and businesses in 102 metropolitan areas the most advanced 4G wireless network on the planet, while continuing to offer the nation’s most reliable 3G network coast to coast,” said David Small, chief technical officer of Verizon Wireless.  “In fewer than eight months we have introduced our 4G LTE network to more than 100 markets and we are continuing to aggressively expand our 4G LTE network; by the end of 2013 we plan to bring 4G LTE mobile broadband to our entire 3G coverage area.”

4G LTE Devices

Consumers can choose from several devices to access the blazingly fast speeds of the 4G LTE network, including the Revolution™ by LG, DROID Charge by Samsung and ThunderBolt™ by HTC smartphones, Samsung Galaxy Tab™ 10.1, as well as the MiFi® 4510L 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot and Samsung 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot.  Laptop users can enjoy speeds up to 10 times faster than the company’s 3G network with three USB modems from Novatel, Pantech and LG.  In real-world, fully-loaded network environments, 4G LTE users should experience average data rates of 5 to 12 megabits per second (Mbps) on the downlink and 2 to 5 Mbps on the uplink.

When customers travel outside of a 4G coverage area, the devices automatically connect to Verizon Wireless’ 3G network, enabling customers to stay connected from coast to coast.  Verizon Wireless’ 3G network is the most reliable network in the country, allowing customers with laptops and smartphones to download and use cool apps – from mobile social networking platforms to GPS-enabled maps – rapidly browse the Web to keep up with news, sports and stock quotes and stream must-see video and customized radio stations.  Customers in 3G coverage areas today who purchase 4G devices will be able to take advantage of 4G speeds when the faster network becomes available in their areas.

Reliability: In and Beyond Major Cities

As the first wireless company in the world to broadly deploy game-changing 4G LTE technology, Verizon Wireless is committed to building its 4G network with the same performance and reliability for which it has long been recognized.  Verizon Wireless’ consistent focus on reliability is based on rigid engineering standards and a disciplined deployment approach year after year.  The company’s 700 MHz spectrum gives Verizon Wireless specific advantages with 4G, including a contiguous, nationwide network license.

Verizon Wireless’ vision also includes bringing its 4G LTE network beyond major cities.  The company is working with rural communications companies to collaboratively build and operate a 4G network in those areas using the tower and backhaul assets of the rural company and Verizon Wireless’ core 4G LTE equipment and premium 700 MHz spectrum.  Already, 10 rural companies have announced their participation in the LTE in Rural America program and have leased spectrum covering, in total, more than 2.1 million people in rural communities and nearly 62,000 square miles.  These companies include: Bluegrass Cellular, Cross Telephone, Pioneer Cellular, Cellcom, Thumb Cellular, Strata Networks, S&R Communications, Carolina West/Clear Stream, Custer Telephone Cooperative and Convergence Technologies.

4G LTE Markets as of July 21, 2011

While Verizon Wireless’ 3G network covers more than 290 million Americans, the company’s 4G LTE network will be available in 102 areas on Thursday, including:

·        Decatur, Ala.
·        Huntsville, Ala.
·        Mobile, Ala.
·        Montgomery, Ala.
·        Phoenix, Ariz.
·        Fresno, Calif.
·        Los Angeles, Calif.
·        Oakland, Calif.
·        San Diego, Calif.
·        San Francisco, Calif.
·        San Jose, Calif.
·        Sacramento, Calif.
·        Colorado Springs, Colo.
·        Denver, Colo.
·        Greater Fairfield and New Haven, Conn.
·        Hartford, Conn.
·        Washington, D.C.
·        Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.
·        Gainesville, Fla.
·        Jacksonville, Fla.
·        Lakeland, Fla.
·        Miami, Fla.
·        Orlando, Fla.
·        Pensacola, Fla.
·        Sarasota-Bradenton, Fla.
·        Tallahassee, Fla.
·        Tampa, Fla.
·        West Palm Beach, Fla.
·        Athens, Ga.
·        Atlanta, Ga.
·        Augusta, Ga.
·        Hilo, Hawaii
·        Honolulu, Hawaii
·        Kahului-Wailuku, Hawaii
·        Lahaina, Hawaii
·        Boise, Idaho
·        Carbondale, Ill.
·        Chicago, Ill.
·        Fort Wayne, Ind.
·        Indianapolis, Ind.
·        West Lafayette, Ind.
·        Wichita, Kan.
·        Louisville, Ky.
·        Baton Rouge, La.
·        Hammond, La.
·        New Orleans, La.
·        Baltimore, Md.
·        Boston, Mass.
·        Springfield, Mass.
·        Detroit, Mich.
·        Flint, Mich.
·        Grand Rapids, Mich.
·        Lansing, Mich.
·        Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minn.
·        St. Louis, Mo.
·        Las Vegas, Nev.
·        New York, N.Y.
·        Rochester, N.Y.
·        Charlotte, N.C.
·        Fayetteville-Lumberton, N.C.
·        Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point, N.C.
·        Raleigh-Durham, N.C.
·        Wilmington, N.C.
·        Akron, Ohio
·        Cincinnati, Ohio
·        Cleveland, Ohio
·        Columbus, Ohio
·        Dayton, Ohio
·        Toledo, Ohio
·        Oklahoma City, Okla.
·        Tulsa, Okla.
·        Portland, Ore.
·        Allentown/Bethlehem/Easton, Pa.
·        Erie, Pa.
·        Harrisburg, Pa.
·        Philadelphia, Pa.
·        Pittsburgh, Pa.
·        Wilkes Barre-Scranton, Pa.
·        State College, Pa.
·        Charleston, S.C.
·        Columbia, S.C.
·        Greenville-Spartanburg, S.C.
·        Hilton Head, S.C.
·        Sioux Falls, S.D.
·        Chattanooga, Tenn.
·        Clarksville, Tenn./Hopkinsville, Ky.
·        Cleveland, Tenn.
·        Knoxville, Tenn.
·        Nashville, Tenn.
·        Bryan-College Station, Texas
·        Dallas-Ft. Worth, Texas
·        Houston, Texas
·        San Antonio, Texas
·        Temple-Killeen, Texas
·        Salt Lake City-Ogden, Utah
·        Olympia, Wash.
·        Seattle, Wash.
·        Spokane, Wash.
·        Tacoma, Wash.
·        Charleston, W.Va.
·        Madison, Wis.
·        Milwaukee, Wis.

Since 2007, when Verizon Wireless jump-started the global 4G LTE ecosystem with its selection of LTE for its 4G technology, the company has developed deep partnerships to spearhead a broad LTE ecosystem, with many being fostered at the LTE Innovation Center, which was officially opened in Waltham, Mass. on July 12, and the Application Innovation Center, slated to open in San Francisco later this year.

Visit www.verizonwireless.com/lte for more information about Verizon Wireless’ 4G LTE network.

Speaking during a D9 press event in California on Thursday, AT&T Mobility’s CEO Ralph de la Vega said it will take AT&T between 2 and 3 years to bring its LTE network coverage up to a par with Verizon Wireless’ 4G offering. AT&T has already announced that it plans to deploy its 4G LTE network to five cities this summer, including Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. However, Verizon’s network is already available in 55 markets, it plans to deploy in 23 more this month, and the carrier has promised full 4G LTE coverage across its current 3G network by the end of 2013. According to CNN, Ralph de la Vega said AT&T “can’t say when” its 4G network will match Verizon’s but said “in the next two to three years they will probably be indistinguishable.” The carrier also reaffirmed that if its proposed acquisition of T-Mobile is approved, customers should see a large improvement the in overall quality and reliability of AT&T’s service.

UPDATE: AT&T spokesperson Seth Bloom provided BGR with the following comments via email:

We noted that your post about LTE today didn’t note Ralph’s point that AT&T has a solid, modern technology with HSPA+, so we didn’t need to move as fast as Verizon with LTE.  A bit more context for our network path can be found here… of course it includes LTE starting this summer with 5 cities (and additional 10 or more by the end of the year):

• As AT&T builds out its LTE footprint, customers outside the LTE area will still have access to HSPA+, meaning consistently fast mobile broadband speeds.
• AT&T’s HSPA+ network with expanded backhaul provides a great 4G experience with speeds up to four times faster than our already fast mobile broadband speeds. Also, more than 80 percent of the U.S. population is currently covered by AT&T’s HSPA+ radio network.
• AT&T didn’t jump straight to LTE so that its customers would have a consistently fast mobile broadband experience. Customers of competitors who haven’t made the same upgrades as AT&T has will find that they’ll have fast speeds in LTE areas, but will see a steep drop-off in speeds when they leave LTE coverage zones. Plus, if they’re using voice and data simultaneously, one of those connections will drop off. AT&T’s customers will have a more consistent speed experience as they move between LTE and  HSPA+ coverage areas.

Read

It’s no secret that Clearwire’s going through a rough patch and, in an interview with CNET, Clearwire’s chief operating officer Erik Prusch said that the carrier may eventually switch from WiMAX to LTE. “WiMAX to date has been a very good technology choice for us,” Prusch said. “We were able to take advantage of the speed to market before LTE was even a glimmer in anyone’s eye. But we recognize the ecosystem in the U.S. will be larger for LTE than WiMAX, so we are conscious of that.” Last summer Clearwire confirmed that it would begin testing 4G LTE trials in the U.S., and it expected to demonstrate that it “[could] deliver significantly higher performance using LTE technologies than any other operator.” It’s unclear how those tests went, but Prusch did backtrack a bit and say that a switch isn’t definite, and that Clearwire needs to keep its eye on LTE and its ecosystem before pulling the trigger and setting a definite timeline. Last month Sprint — which owns a majority stake of Clearwire — said that it has agreed to pay the company $1 billion through 2012 for fees associated with the use of Clearwire’s 4G WiMAX network.

[Via Phone Scoop]

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AT&T’s “4G” message may be a bit convoluted when its Long Term Evolution (LTE) network begins to bear fruit. The company has already branded its HSPA network as “4G”, although the coverage and real world speeds are less than impressive — especially when compared to other HSPA+ networks, like that of T-Mobile. But that hasn’t stopped the nation’s second largest carrier from working on a second 4G network and, thankfully, this one seems to be bringing the downlink goods. Recently, blog GigaOM was treated to a tour of AT&T’s Foundry laboratory in Texas. The site reports seeing “real world speeds” of 28.87Mbps on the downlink and 10.4Mbps on the uplink. Much better than the paltry 5Mbps down and 1Mbps up being pumped out by the company’s current 4G, HSPA network. AT&T plans to launch its LTE network in several markets by the end of this year and hopefully… these speeds hold up.

Read

Verizon Wireless’ speedy 4G LTE network hit another milestone on Tuesday night: its first major outage. BGR has confirmed what dozens of tipsters have been telling us all night via email — Verizon’s LTE services are currently unavailable across the country, and they have been unavailable for several hours now. We’ve confirmed the outage here in New York City with our Samsung DROID Charge and have noticed that Verizon’s 3G network also appears to be unavailable. There’s no official word from Verizon Wireless on the outage, so it’s unclear how long it will last.

UPDATE: Verizon posted the following to its official Twitter account: “We’re aware of an issue with the 4G LTE connections and our network engineers are working to resolve quickly. Investigating 4G LTE network issue; ThunderBolts making voice calls, may get slower 1xRTT data.”

This information comes from a new tipster, but we have very good reason to believe that Verizon will begin rolling out its LTE network in 25 markets starting on November 15th. While 25 markets might not sound like a lot, but apparently they’re enough to give 100 million subscribers access to the next-generation wireless network. LTE handsets will not be immediately available at launch, but Verizon is planning to release “a slew of new devices” on Black Friday which is on November 26th. LTE data plans will indeed be tiered, but Big Red won’t be pulling a Sprint and charing a $10 premium for access to its 4G network. Oh, and don’t be surprised if Verizon starts harping about how its “empowering the user” with open devices.

Thanks, C.!

Having theoretically learned something from the N810 WiMAX Edition debacle, Nokia now seems to be letting the market dictate where wireless technology is headed as opposed to trying to cut competition off at the pass. The result: a focus on future-ready products as opposed to tablets no one wants with a broadband connectivity option no one has. This morning Nokia announced the successful trials and partner availability of its RD-3 internet modem. The RD-3 is a modem component that supports an array of GSM/EDGE, WCDMA/HSPA and of course LTE bands, making it an ideal development tool for network vendors, OEMs and operators. Nokia, paving the way for LTE development and adoption… We like it.

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Not wanting to be extremely late to the show like they were with 3G devices for GSM networks (bringing up painful memories, anyone?), the folks over at RIM HQ recently decided to create a work team that’s been specifically entrusted with the task of creating an LTE BlackBerry. The intention of the RIM execs is to have an LTE BlackBerry ready at approximately the same time that LTE begins worldwide deployment, something that could come as early as late 2009 if Motorola has their way. Motorola’s seemingly overly zealous ambitions aside, 2011 is the year when LTE is generally expected to be available with the major carriers of the world. In case some of you are wondering what the hell LTE is, it’s also known as 4G network technology and is the heir to 3G and 3.5G networks. Think of it as an IP-based network in which voice and data connections are streamed together without distinction and are broadcasted through a ridiculously fast connection that has up to four-times the efficiency at delivering data-packets than the 3.5G networks of today. As with all of our scoops, we’ll be sure to keep monitoring this situation and keep you updated with the latest news.

Thanks SaxMan!