By 
Verizon Wireless’s aggressive LTE rollouts are a continued effort, but they decided to take some time today to reflect on their progress so far. They boast that over 200 million Americans are covered with 4G, which is more than two-thirds of the population. They also went on to state that 5% of their consumer base, about five and a half million people, are on 4G LTE.
While the percentage seems small, 5.5 million active 4G users is still quite impressive. Verizon will release no smartphone in 2012 without 4G LTE so they’re banking on getting even more people from 3G to 4G in the coming years as they complete their entire network rollouts by 2013’s end. Are you planning to make a switch to 4G soon?
I’m moving over to the big red come June. I’m tired of Sprint’s worsening service and hardly no 4G.
Me too! This is why I’m switching to Verizon from Sprint as soon as I possibly can.
My contract was up this June with Sprin, but thanks to their recent billing changes, I was able to leave without an ETF for both my lines. I have been with Verizon for about 2 complete days, and the difference in service is night and day. I walked into a service office in a car dealership last night, and was rocking LTE while I waited. That would not have been possible with my service at Sprint. Yeah, my bill is going to be more expensive, but at least its service I can use. I do have to say though, I miss using my EVO 4G. If Sprint’s service were better, I would have had no problem staying with that phone for a long time, but my new G-Nex is working out pretty well.
I remember saying “i’ll never want 4G. 3G has been fine”. Once I got a 4G LTE capable phone, I could never go back.
Just like going to a larger screen….you just cannot go back ;)
Already did. My Samsung Gnex works just dandy on 4G here in Cleveland… Besides the downtimes, and the fact that I don’t live downtown to get 4G when I am at home, and when I am at home the coverage would be horrible–except for the fact that I got a network extender that I had to pay for and it still uses my minutes, even though it dosen’t go over the VZW network…
I keed, I keed. Overall the service/coverage is great, and I really can’t complain–other than those 4 points above, but those really are minor and the only ones I have with VZW.
If south central PA was actually covered I would be able to actually use my 4G. I find the stat about 200 million people covered a bit exaggerated when you look at the map and see that there are major holes in the LTE coverage. But then again, PR is PR. I mean they reported we won the war against terrorism back in 2003……just saying.
I agree. I have refused to get a new 4G smartphone from them because they continue to fail to get this area updated to LTE. I live in a densely populated area in southeastern PA, just outside the immediate Philly suburbs, but we still don’t have it. Verizon seems more interested in tiny towns now – it makes no sense.
Maybe the small towns are easier and less regulation so it is easy for them to put up as many lte towers as quick as possible
I was thinking the same thing. Its got to be something other than just population size that determines where they upgrdae to 4G. Probably a combination of where its the cheapest and easiest to do so.
@bakdroid
If you put LTE towers in all the major cities, you’ve easily covered 200 million people. Not many people live in the empty spots. Wouldn’t you put towers in the most populated places first if you were them?
There are pretty densely populated places outside of major cities that do not have coverage. Yes it makes sense to put them in those places first, but wouldn’t it also make sense to do the same as you continue to roll out. The last places they rolled out in PA were some of the least populated towns where cites like York, Lancaster, and the outskirts of Philly are left with no coverage. All of which have a decent population and also have colleges.
i already have a 4G LTE device and just simply love it. it’s just amazing fast. but i worry what’ll happen when more uses jump on it…
Agreed. Also what kind of battery life will the next crop of LTE phones have? So far only the RAZR Maxx seems to have the guts to run all day (16 hrs) on a single charge. Have to wait and see if the Tegra 3 and S4 based phones can too.
Lol all the iLosers always tell me that you don’t need 19mbps speed. Oh really? And just as much as you “don’t need a dual core CPU.” Yep, you don’t need anything until Apple says so right?
I know personally whenever I leave my 4G area I can’t stand using slow 3G. It’s terrible lol, Verizon’s 3G is slow, I hate to say it.
I can only imagine how anying they will be when they have a lte iphone out or a iwallet or whatever they call their variant of google wallet
Verizon’s 3g is WAY faster than Sprint, AT&T or T-Mobile. That’s why the rest of the networks are so horrible and out of date compared to Verizon. You pay for what you get.
Verizon’s 3G is more consistent than any other carrier, but AT&T and Tmobile have faster 3G then Verizon does. Sprint is about the same or a bit slower.
Joseph, you would have to smoke hefty amounts of crack cocaine to be able to say Verizon 3g is “WAY faster than AT&T or T-Mobile”
Verizon has about 1/3 of AT&T’s 3g speed in any given city for starters… I’ll let you look up the rest.
<— Verizon customer for 8 years. Will never go back to 3g.
Just got the Droid 4, 4G is sick. Tethering from it is amazing
I dont even use wifi any more id rarher tether since well you just cant beat the speeds faster than my roomates cable connection. Plus althugh i do not get unlimited data i get by with my 12 gb
5%? Yeah right, only when there is no outage.
when they flip te switch on my tower i’ll buy 2 4G phones.
Even their supposed 4G locations don’t have 4G, when they get their $ h i t together maybe it would be worth it, but until then..No!
If you don’t own a 4G device, how would you know?
Have Verizon 4G and love it. 3G is so slow.
I just got my GNex sat and I love the speed. I’ll miss sprint unlimited but what’s the point when I couldn’t load a web page at my house. Verizon is overpriced but their network is fast
This is my exact story. Got my G-NEX this past Sunday. I can use my service indoors!
I’m the 5%!
While the county I live in here in southern California has nearly a million people in it, Verizon has seen fit to not include us in the 200 million. If I want to use 4G I have to drive to one of the 3 counties that surround us.
What county is that verizon is 85% done with southern california rollout i get 4g almost everywhere
Ventura Co. We were skipped right over. I had talked to Verizon in May when I got my crappy LG 4G Revolution and they promised 4G by October, in October they promised December, in December they promised February. Now they just say sometime by December 2012.
If I would have known, I would not have bought one of the original garbage 4g phones and waited or gone with my first choice, dinc2 (I know but I really liked it).
wow thats close to la there should be no reason not to have 4g i live in riverside and its great out here.
I agree but Verizon does not and is not willing to share why it is so hard to convert 15 more towers to complete the coastal run from LA to Santa Barbara.
F U verizon ur never getting my money
Verizon 4G > all other 4G (and WiMax)
that’ll be Apple’s iphone5 launch keynote. “Only 5% of verizon customers use it so we decided not to add LTE to our phone again”
“Over 200 Million Americans Covered With It”
Here, apply this topical cream. It should help…
(31mbps down and loving it! Going back to 3G would be a nightmare…)
My next phone will definitely be 4G.
I have a razr maxx with lte, of course, but I live in a small town away from any lte. Tried it out in Atlanta this past weekend and I cannot wait to get lte here (supposedly end of summer). Webpages uploading in seconds, makes looking at porn on my phone so much easier! LOL!
NICE! 4G for the important things in life! 8P
I can’t wait for my upgrade date… 4G is incredible and covers everywhere I go on a regular basis. (Raleigh area, NC)
I have a 4G phone in a not 4G area,,, arrrrgh! still love my Rezound, though!
They may cost more, and be money grubbing deusch bags. But LTE is amazing, so is my Razr Maxx and the customer service I’ve had for almost 5 years is worth the premium I pay. Besides you can’t beat Unlimited LTE on a dual core smart phone that lasts two days!
Cause It drains the battery specially when your going in and out of 4g coverage (Brooklyn)
Does this include mobile hotspots and usb modems?
As a Mi-Fi owner I was disappointed to find out I couldn’t upgrade to a 4G model when it was time for my upgrade without dropping down to a 2gb plan (now Verizon only offers 5gb and 10gb plans.) I would much rather keep slower unlimited 3G than lose data for faster speeds.
Only 5% use LTE… on a side note only the top 5% use more than 2gb a month.
Also, how many people turn off 4G to save battery. 5% bought a extended battery or have a MAXX. I have a MAXX, but as much as I travel, only half the places have 4G.
And doesn’t 4G cost less/ more efficient for Verizon? I see why they would want everyone to switch over. Not only that, if everybody with a data plan has a 4G phone with batteries that do not last a full day, Verizon wins because no data is being transferred. Verizon will be paid more for doing less….. not that I care, grandfathered with unlimited tether and data. But I don’t want to see Big Red’s network bogged down like Sprint or AT&T.
I guess people are so stupid that they’ll pay the same price for less speed.
4G and LTE has been a complete fail where I live. We’re supposedly 100% blanketed with 4G and I can’t keep a signal to save my life. Not only that but now that I’m on a Nexus I can’t keep my 3G and I even lose voice. Verizon feels like a crappy regional carrier since November of 2011. I wish I would’ve never sold my Dinc 2. I’d switch back in a heart beat.
Does anyone have stats of how fast Verizon’s 3G network was when it was new, and how much slower it got once it was loaded with people using it?