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Verizon wasn’t lying when it said it planned to have its 4G LTE network covering the vast majority of its 3G network by 2013’s end. Indeed, the company has smashed that goal by just under half a year, with the 500th market launching in Parkersburg, West Virgnia today.
Verizon says this makes the network “substantially complete” as more than 99% of its current 3G deployment is now covered by 4G LTE. That gives nearly 300 million Americans access to the high speed data network that Verizon has been building out since 2010.
With that, Verizon knows its work isn’t done. The company is still gearing up to begin upgrading their systems to support VoLTE, and it is expected to upgrade its deployment to LTE-Advanced at some point in the future.
Verizon didn’t provide any new information about those efforts in today’s announcements, but we imagine it won’t be long before Big Red is feeling chatty again. So go ahead and celebrate, Verizon customers — the world’s largest 3G network is now joined by the world’s largest 4G network, and Verizon can safely say its role as a leader in wireless coverage extends into this new generation of mobile data.
[via Verizon]
This isn’t meant to be a sarcastic question… I live in an area that was one of the first to receive their LTE and still have a few spots where LTE is impossible to get (and we’re talking outdoors or in my office building – not underground or anything). Is this a tower issue? Or lack-of-towers issue? Or do they simply need to bolster the current ones?
I am not sure. I live in a dead zone, 5 minutes in either direction rewards me with full bars and blazing speeds. Might be an overloaded network maybe?
I never have connection issues when it first rolled out.
Dead zone could be more relative to VZW needing to adjust downtilt to provide better coverage for those areas experiencing no signal, etc..
If I can find the article I’ll link it, but a while back Verizon announced that they were going to get LTE deployed and then look for soft spots in the coverage and seek to backfill them with microcells to prop up coverage in these areas where it’s not as strong.
I heard the same thing. Also, I know they are building up the capacity of the sites they converted to help align with the increasing 4G activations.
I think it’s land topology thing. My neighborhood in St. Louis is completely dead, but up the hill less than a quarter mile away I get 4 bars. I would guess that the range on the 4G antennas is significantly larger and it’s more susceptible to dead zones where land gets in the way.
Do you live near a nuclear reactor? Maybe a Radio Station? TV Station? These landmarks can seriously interfere with 4G, 3G radio waves
Nope, area is pretty flat as well. I think it might have something to do with our buildings, because as soon as I get near them (and a guarantee after I walk in) the LTE signal goes to crap.
Ya, I’ve got the same problem at work. As soon as i’m inside, LTE disappears.
I’m also on the very first floor – if I could, I’d head up top to see if that made any difference… but Siemens is up there and you can’t even get to the floor without a keycard. Oh well, I’m still the only one in my office of AT&T users that gets a solid voice and 3G signal. :)
Siemens being up there may very well be your issue :)
hah, you could be right… but irony of all ironies – I’m actually getting 2 LTE bars consistently today… I can’t believe it. I’m almost afraid to hit “post” here as I might lose it… lol
How many people in your office? My company built a new office building for 500 people and service sucked. We contacted Verizon and they came out and put antennas on top of the building as well as microcells (I think that’s what they called them) inside. Boom! 4 bars of LTE. Might be worth looking into.
It’s a 10 story office building for a lot of different companies. There are antenna’s on top of all 3 of the buildings in our little office park, but I’m guessing none of them are LTE antenna’s.
Can you here me now? Nope. Still no signal for voice or data in all of Lincoln, Ca. Voted the fast growing city in California several years in a row. I’ve been driving past the tower without its antenna for months while ATT fixed theirs up 50 feet away. Now my buddy gets full signal and I don’t. So bass ackwards.
To be fair, Lincoln was a mining outpost up until 10 years ago….
True, and VZW was the first to put a site there back in ’05. AT&T now has two sites, but honestly, it seems every carrier there still has bad service.
Ironically, if I leave my house and go to the old mining town section, I get a okay signal, just nothing in the neighborhood. We’ve lived here for over 5 years with almost 0 signal. The time is coming to make the switch. Been so long with Verizon, IDK who is next best. #firstworldproblems
Dang, that is pretty bad….I would suggest going on AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint’s websites, to see coverage maps. Years ago, I was able to walk away from my contract with all 4 major carriers (without paying termination fees), because none of them had coverage at my house. That house I lived in was a curse. It was a black hole for all the carriers. As soon as I would walk 20 feet in any direction, full bars. Standing next to the house, no service.
Guess these expensive prices are worth something
Now to see if they can get LTE-Advanced up and running in any of those places fast.
If their roll out of LTE is any indication, Verizon will roll out LTE-A at the same pace.
So good on Verizon for a successful LTE roll out thus far, but bad on Quentyn for a fan-boy article. Verizon hasn’t “smashed” any goal yet. They didn’t promise a ‘substantially complete’ or ‘vast majority’ network, they promised their *entire* 3G footprint would be LTE by 2013. That’s not to say they won’t accomplish that goal by the end of the year, but the celebration is definitely a bit premature.
If they have covered 99% of the 3G footprint with 6 months to spare, I would consider that a smashed goal.
they haven’t even come close to 99% of their 3G network. that’s the entire point.
O_o Did you not read the article? They have covered more than 99% of the existing 3G network. Your location must be part of the 1% that has not been covered yet.
Theoretically it may be covered but there are still lots of places where coverage drops to 3G for a block or so.
Then either you misunderstand what a ‘smashed goal’ means, or you’re assuming the scale they’re using is linear and that remaining “1%” will fall easily.
At any rate, more power to them, hopefully it is 100% by end of year. I’m just not gonna hold my breath for it personally.
Granted, it’s not 100%, but at the rate they have been rolling out LTE, i doubt 1% will take very long. After all, they charge us through the nose, all those piles of cash gotta be used for somethin……
Heh.
I just looked at their coverage map, you should go take a look. Apparently they don’t even believe themselves about this 99% thing.
We can’t get 4g where we live and live just a few miles from a VZ store. VZW service here sucks, we see 3g and 1x quite a lot. Sad really, buy a 4g phone and lucky to get 4g and live close to a VZW store.
We have a joke in our house — can you hear me now, NO!, let me come into the same room then I might.
This is not intended as a slam against “all” of the VZW customer base, but there is a significant % that allows Big Red to get away with saying, advertising, and promoting anything they wantn and never speaking out against the inaccuracies.
One of my biggest gripes is their coverage maps. In my town (Panama City), the whole southern part of the county is engulfed in deep red (4G) on the map, but coverage and consistency of data speeds is hit or miss at best throughout the area (really being kind).
My second biggest gripe is the (inconsistent) quality of service. They ought to be held to a standard (minimum) acceptable throughput rate where ever they advertise service. I’m not talking about a bunker 30 yards deep, but in a car driving around. If my phone is showing a 4G signal, I should be able to depend on “x” amount of D/L speed. For example, If my video cuts out because I’m in the fringe between two towers, that is not acceptable. And to take it a step further, 4G service is pretty crappy where 3G service was always reliable (and my phone doesn’t allow switching to 3G/CDMA only). I pay the same amount for my 4G (Note 2 phone) plan every month, why shouldn’t I be able to receive consistent service within a few block/mile radius if I am on a route that is advertised as fully 4g according to their own map??? We wouldn’t put up with it from our cable provider, why do we with our cell providers?
voted fastest growing city? shouldn’t the title of fastest growing city be decided by cold hard facts and not a vote?
Where did you even get that info? I didn’t state it and how is it relevant?
Explain to me why most of I-80 through Pennsylvania is 3G if over 99% of the nation is upgraded.
The largest (SLOWEST) 3G network, has not been replaced by the largest (SLOWEST) LTE network. —-VzW Customer
Have fun trying to get a signal while outside of a city. I’ll take a slower connection I can get almost anywhere over a faster one that only works in town.
Wow… you really did not read my comment. My comment, in a nutshell, what that Verizon’s LTE is slow. How did you miss that?
Wow… you really did not read my comment. My comment, in a nutshell, what (sic) that while Verizon’s LTE may be a little slower it is available almost everywhere, whereas other carrier’s networks may offer faster speeds the network range is severely limited. I was pointing out that I’d rather take a slower speed that I can use everywhere than a faster speed I can only use in a very small footprint. And apparently 90-some million other people agree with me. How did you miss that?
LOL Except you did not specify whether you were talking about LTE or 3G, when you were talking about a larger slower connection.
FYI, Sprint holds the slowest 3G network….considering it gets around average 200kbps…at least in Central Florida.
I have to turn off LTE everyday when I go into work in Manhattan. WTF VZW… Incredibly slow and sometimes no data service at all! Talk about a clogged pipeline. 3G is GOOD most of the time. Maybe its my phone? Samsung Galaxy Nexus.
tinyurl.com/l3cselt
Verizon, seriously? If you just finished rolling out 4G LTE, why is it I am on 3G more on your network than 4G. I used to always be on 4G but it has degraded so bad I am on 3G more than 4G in the same area.