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Verizon promised their LTE network would blanket the entirety of their current 3G network by 2013, and today’s announcement that they’re lighting up nearly 50 new markets in the next 6 months is another big step toward fulfilling that goal. (For the record, they committed to 140 markets by the end of this year, so we should be seeing just over 50 more for the latter portion of 2011.) Here’s a full list of cities expected to be receiving LTE love sometime soon:
- Huntsville, Alabama
- Mobile, Alabama
- Montgomery, Alabama
- Little Rock, Arkansas
- Colorado Springs, Colorado
- Gainesville, Florida
- Lakeland-Winter Haven, Florida
- Pensacola, Florida
- Sarasota-Bradenton, Florida
- Tallahassee, Florida
- Augusta, Georgia
- Honolulu, Hawaii
- Kahului-Wailuku, Hawaii
- Lahaina, Hawaii
- Boise-Nampa, Idaho
- Carbondale-Marion, Illinois
- Wichita, Kansas
- Baton Rouge, Louisiana
- Hammond, Louisiana
- Detroit, Michigan
- Flint, Michigan
- Fayetteville-Lumberton, North Carolina
- Greensboro-Winston-Salem-High Point, North Carolina
- Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina
- Wilmington, North Carolina
- Dayton-Springfield, Ohio
- Tulsa, Oklahoma
- Erie, Pennsylvania
- State College, Pennsylvania
- Charleston, South Carolina
- Columbia, South Carolina
- Greenville-Spartanburg, South Carolina
- Hilton Head, South Carolina
- Sioux Falls, South Dakota
- Chattanooga, Tennessee
- Clarksville, Tennessee
- Cleveland, Tennessee
- Kingsport, Tennessee; Johnson City, Tennessee; Bristol, Virginia/Tennessee
- Knoxville, Tennessee
- Memphis, Tennessee
- Beaumont-Port Arthur, Texas
- Bryan-College Station, Texas
- Provo-Orem, Utah
- Salt Lake City-Ogden, Utah
- Centralia, Washington
- Olympia, Washington
- Charleston, West Virginia
- Madison, Wisconsin
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Looks like Verizon’s strategy is to hit as many big cities and areas in one state as they can in one fell swoop – almost opposite of Sprint who announces 1-2 markets at a time. In fact, I can’t even remember the last time Sprint lit a city up. There are still a ton out there missing out on 4G, guys! [via A&M]
What does this have to with android? Other than the fact that it will provide data for android and other operating system based phones.
DRATS, I knew Madison would get LTE long before Sprint 4G.
However, a Sprint field tech said they would be completing a large network upgrade in the Madison area before the end of Q1 and said I would see a large increase in data speeds. He would not confirm that this was 4G, but seemed like everything he was describing was 4G. So far our area has been maxed out on data usage with speeds decreasing from 1mbps to around 200kbps over the last 4 months.
Augusta? WTF? What about the ATL?
lol Verizon’s no better, they have not one California city in there. Alteast Sprint has the Bay, LA, and the capital covered with 4G (in other words: the places that matter lol)
Only 2 Texas citys? they better work fast…
@terrence
lol Verizon already has 4G in LA. It was one of the first places to get 4G, along with New York, San Francisco, Chicago and about 34 other markets (in other words: Verizon started with the places that matter lol)
@terrance, I believe they were covered at the launch, and are live markets for verizons lte.
ATL was in the initial 2010 launch, Bobert.
HSPA+ is so much better
lol @ the ppl who don’t realize this is in ADDITION to the 38 cities launched earlier. You guys should have your 4G taken away just for those comments.
WTF – Carbondale-Marion, Illinois… Population less than 30k… DUMB DUMB DUMB!
Who the hell decides where to launch 4g locations? Is there something specific that makes one particular location a better candidate than another? They seem to be aiming for college towns rather than big cities. Where is the Indy/Indiana love Sprint and/or Verizon. First one with 4g in Indy wins my business. Sonsabitches
Not one of the major cities in Ohio? Really? Cleveland, TN before Cleveland, Ohio? What gives?
Do you people follow any of the stories posted on blogs. The initial launch covered every major city, including LA, Atlanta,Chicago, read people!!
Wait a second, Mobile, Huntsville, and Montgomery, Alabama all get it before Birmingham? That’s ludicrous!
Guess I’ll be getting a new LTE phone.
Regardless of this SO CALLED LTE DEPLOYMENT… It means NOTHING RIGHT NOW… LTE IS UNPROVEN AND SO IS THERE NETWORK.. SPRINT’S CURRENT WIMAX NETWORK AND THERE UPCOMING WIMAX 2 NETWORK WILL SLAP LTE AROUND… Sprint is proven just like the GRANDDADDY OF 4G THE HTC EVO 4G… VERIZON CURRENTLY HAS NO DEVICES ON THERE NETWORK THAT IS 4G…. TOOK THEM LONG ENOUGH TO JOIN THE PARTY
State College, PA!?!?! There’s damn near nothing out there but a bunch of college students. Why not Pittsburgh, Harrisburg or Philadelphia, PA where there’s a decent population.
It’s like people don’t pay attention…
@Bobert – Atlanta and Athens already have LTE from Verizon, with Augusta being added in 2011.
@terrence. – Verizon already covers Oakland, San Fran, San Jose, LA, and San Diego.
Still no love for oregon. Portland, Eugene, and salem have larger populations than a number of the cities verizon has announced ( like the whole state of west virginia)
This is added to the list verizon already covers with 4g correct?
Yes @V8
@ MonkeyCheese
I agree, State College is stupid. (I had a nice long reply stating this, but Phandroid decided to lose it.) Pittsburgh and Philadelphia were covered in the initial launch locations, but there are lots of other cities / metro areas that seem like they would have made more sense than Erie and State College: Allentown/Bethlehem/Easton, Reading, Scranton/Wilkes Barre, Harrisburg, Lancaster, York…
No, instead they go with locations that are largely in the middle of nowhere and have crappy 3G coverage (most likely because of their isolated/mountainous/rural locations). Makes no sense to me, but a lot of what Verizon has done lately makes no sense to me.
Another one that makes no sense to me – Flint, MI. In all honesty, I’ve never been there; but from everything I’ve ever seen or read of it, it seems like it’s pretty much a slum. Does anyone even have the money for a 4G smartphone and the 12/24 months of data service to go with it there???
Sounds like Verizon is aiming toward the college student market… which actually makes quite a bit of sense since it is their generation that will likely use 4G the most. It also allows them to thoroughly test the network with dense populations without having to worry about to much criticism, since the younger generations tend to be more tech savvy and willing to live with a few glitches. It’s going to take a lot more than 50 markets every 6 months to cover all of their 3G markets before 2013 though…
@Richard: Verizon is fashionably late to the party. They already cover hundreds of cities in 38 markets, covering 115 million people. That’s over 1/3 of the population. Sprint has almost double the markets, but only 120 million.Verizon markets are on average 3 times the size of a Sprint market. Sprint/Clear has prettty much come to a standstill. As soon as Verizon launches this batch of markets, they will be far ahead of Sprint. I will be dropping my 4G-less Evo for the thunderbolt as soon as it launches next month, since my city is on this list! Jump on it Little rock!
So will the tower in Lafayette Indiana work Indianapolis, in
@MonkeyCheese and BigDav
As a student at Penn State, the 3G in the State College area is great. To be getting 4G soon will actually make me want to get a 4G phone since my home area isn’t covered yet.
If you didn’t notice a lot of those small towns/cities that are getting 4G are college towns (Gainesville, College Station, etc), because college students are more likely to have smart phones.
Yeah there’s plenty of other cities like Allentown or Bethlehem that have larger residential populations, but if u break it down by people who actually own smartphones, i’d place my money on the college towns having more. Besides, PSU doubles the population of State College from 45,000 to roughly 90,000…so it’s actually fairly large.
@ Richard Yarrell: you are stupid. and obviously a sprint customer. Nuff said about that. I don’t think their is a single other person who beleives wimax will be better than LTE except for obviously you. And as I stated. You are stupid.
What no Elmira NY?!!!!!
No Elmira = FAIL
Verizon seems to be aiming to eliminate the rural areas first for the To Do list, now that Rural ad of the boy in the field running towards his barn and leaving with a ThunderBolt is starting to make alot more sense. (lol no puns intended)
but if they spread out LTE in rural areas, they can then light up the cities which will require alot more bandwidth because of all the population, and then a ripple effect will blanket a complete area when the city is lit up.
Atleast thats my theory
@NCX: Rural areas? Ummm no. Their first 38 markets are all major cities. This second batch of markets are medium to large cities. Rural would be in small towns and such.
Welcome to VZ. Check out our non-existing LTE phones!
Don’t tell my x about State College… she thinks it’s a major population center, because she went to school there.
@Novaglarion
Actually that’s because Verizon is by FAR the leading cellular company here. There are the select few that do not have V because of say,[you know what]. And you have students from Chicago, and what are they going to want from their parents come time for school? That AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, etc. don’t have here. Yea I think it’s a smart move, so suck it and be jealous that So Ill is getting 4G sooner then the rest. It’s about time.
For those of you comparing to Sprint, and especially those of you trying to YELL about it (Richard Yarell…), I hope you realize WiMax is not actually 4G. In fact if AT&T follows T-Mobile’s lead and calls there HSDPA+ 4G (which T-mobile did only because Sprint lied first and called WiMax 4G), then one has to wonder what AT&T will call their LTE when they roll it out, having already used the term 4G for lesser technology. Verizon is the only carrier wise enough to skip intermediary technology and go straight to LTE.
@Novaglarion
…and the population in Carbondale, alone, is +40k.
Really surprised that every city over 40,000 residents will have LTE in Tennessee. Makes me a lot happier!
Verizon absolutely ignoring Indianapolis (and Indiana as a whole) is what is drawing me to get the verizon iphone instead of the thunderbolt.
Actually covering college campuses makes a ton of sense, think of how much they will make in 4g phones and usb modems off all the college kids that want the best out there, and that need internet anywhere at the drop of a hat so they can do school projects without being crammed in their dorm room or the library 24/7. Plus most of the biggest US cities are either covered in this one or were already covered with initial launch. People are complaining but there is no other network that is moving this fast to cover this many locations and they have had it for a while longer. I for one am very pleased with the way they are rolling out their 4g network.
@SupraLance: Wimax is as much 4G, as Lte. They are actually very similar. That is why Wimax can be converted into Lte, if they so choose. However, Lte is better because it penetrates buildings better due to its frequency.
@SupraLance i hope you realize as well that LTE isnt 4g either. If you want to get down to it, no one has it and its basically a marketing ploy no matter if its LTE, HSPA+ or WiMax.
Face it Sprint fanboys, the only reason you’re with Sprint is because your too stupid to make enough money to afford VZW. Your inane comments about LTE being unproven and skipping major markets is baffling. (VZW launched 38 LTE markets in Dec.) Your comments about WiMAX being superior when Clear is already testing LTE because WiMax’s performance is underwhelming exhibits a disconnect with anything that resembles intelligence. In the Sprint fanboy’s world the fact that Sprint’s network partner (they can’t afford to do it on their own) Clear is running out of money building a network that takes three x’s as many towers to = VZW’s coverage somehow proves how superior Sprint is and their choice in the low cost low value provider is.
Are people ACTUALLY bitching about this? Relax. They can’t hit everyone at once. If they COULD, they would.
People trying to defend Sprint…do the MATH…it always adds up Verizon> Sprint…that’s not fanboyisem by the way…just simple math
How about blanketing Seattle with functional 3g first? So far my POS sprint phone gets better signal. Even my wife’s Tmobile phone gets the same service.
I’ve yet to find Portland (Ore.) on any of the lists, WTF Verizon?
Bwahahahaha @ Richard Yarrell!!
Sprint’s use of WiMax on Clearwire has shown it to be a failure!! Where they have coverage, it’s spotty, and if you go into any building, the coverage is gone. So far the only thing Sprint has proven with it’s 4G is that the implementation is garbage!!
As for Verizon… Even without a single 4G phone yet (We know they will be here b4 mid year), I’ll bet the coverage in the cities that they are lighting up will be far superior then Sprint. Sprint can talk about bands and what not, but Wimax at 2.5ghz and used in mobile has shown it to be a joke!
BTW, maybe that’s why Sprint and Clearwire have requested some of the 2.5ghz band to be reclassified for TDD-LTE. Maybe the reason we don’t see Clearwire lighting up more cities with WiMax is because Sprint has pretty much bailed on them(They don’t have a sugar momma any longer) and they are looking more towards LTE?
check out our non-existing 4G phones
@SupraLance ATT is using the HSPA AND LTE as they are “launching” their 4g network so they dont have to “explain” the difference later.
This is from ATT website: “Not all 4G is created equal. AT&T is the only carrier that will offer two layers of network technology that deliver 4G speeds: HSPA+ and LTE. Our HSPA+ network combined with enhanced backhaul is expected to enable speeds up to 4x faster than AT&T’s already fast mobile broadband speeds. And we’ll be evolving to even higher speeds with the rollout of our LTE network.”
How could you call both technologies 4G?
People know 4g and 4g is faster than 3g most people don’t know what the hell LTE or wimax sprint says its 4g people get it cause its one more g than 3g Verizon is doing it right in the way they are rolling out their much better than every other cell phone provider especially sprint and at&t never had much to brag about
did they ever really cover 97% of all Americans? Or can we add that one to the lies they’ve fed people.
Yeah if you do the math like I tried to say earlier Verizon is over Sprint. Simple math…that’s just the way it is and always will be with 4g as well. Verizon> Sprint
Hmmm Richard Yarrell,
Just saw you posted the same kind of crap (in all caps) about the T-Mobile UK/USA meeting.
1) It’s ok if you like Sprint, competition is good.
2) If you truly believe Sprint’s coverage is better than Verizon, you sir are an idiot. Please see the links below
http://coverage.sprint.com/IMPACT.jsp?ECID=vanity:coverage
http://www.verizonwireless.com/wireless-coverage-area-map.shtml
3)Many customers like myself wouldn’t benefit from Sprint’s 4G coverage due to it being available in like 9 cities.
4) The HTC Evo is a good device but there’s really nothing better about it than the Droids/other Android offerings out there. It’s kind of old news now…
Back to the original topic. I’m excited about LTE and glad Verizon is rolling out this many new areas!
@ Richard Yarrell
maybe you should spend less time in forums and more time learning how the world works in books and publications. Being from Boston, the first LTE testing ground…it is real and has been real for buisness use for quite a while. Verizon does rigorious testing on all products before releasing them to consumers. LTE has existed in Europe for years and is a proven well used system which is far more reliable then sprints wimax. I personally dont know why im taking the time to explaine this to you because i am going to guess you arnt going to read this and learn, instead keep your biased and clouded judgement based off of nothing and continue to make irate and annoying posts based on what you “know to be true”.
Huh? I agree with the comments that cities with younger populations (a/k/a college towns) make sense… C’mon, Verizon: Flint, Michigan before Ann Arbor? Ann Arbor is only a bit bigger but average income is much higher, education level is much higher, average age is much lower, it’s home to ProQuest and major branch offices for Google, Thomson Reuters, Web MD, and the tiny little University of Michigan…
Olympia, WA FTW!
sarasota fl !!!!!!!!!
WOooo old ppl !!!
Would everyone stop complaining vzw lte just
Launched 36 cities on its networks and in less than a few months later it will launch 45
More cities. if you were around for EVDO launch it took a lot longer to launch. They are saying full build out by 2013. Where sprint has been “out” for over a year and it looks like their dragging their feet in comparison. They’ll get to everybody it takes time.
NO RICHMOND, VA??? ARE YOU JK?
If you look at the list of cities in the deployment plan, and the fact there are few if any LTE spmartphones out, you will realize this is not about phones. This is about LTE, IMS and mobile application using video, FPT, VoIP… and all the other communication services LTE can support. Colleges do R&D and young people think outside the box. Add to that, cities like Orlando have the potential for millions of LTE endpoints to manage (Disney and Universal studio POS devices to start with). You also research Obama’s funding for Broadband for America (LTE in Rural America program)? Both Alcatel-Lucent and Ericcson are big players with big ideas and they could care less about “phones”. That was obvious in their 2010 roadshows. Verizon already has the best coverage foot print for voice and 3G, they didn’t invest billions to sell android smartphones. And yes, I have LTE when I travel and should have it locally (college town) by June.