Good ole Bean town, it was the first to toss that English tea into the drink and now it is going to be the one of first major hotbeds for 4G technology. Yes, all you Bostonians have cause to rejoice- within the next 6-8 months, you will have not one, not two, but three wireless carriers offering up 4G service in your locale.
The first to hit Boston will be Clearwire with its growing WiMAX network. Clearwire is on track for a September launch in the Greater Boston area and will offer both mobile plans for folks on the go and home plans as a replacement for traditional cable and DSL broadband service.
Soon after Clear launches WiMAX, Sprint and Comcast plan to step-in as resellers for this mobile broadband service. Good news for Sprint customers who are rocking an EVO 4G or an Epic 4G and are anxious to get 4G. Though Sprint will be coming to the party shortly after WiMAX officially launches, Sprint customers will see their 4G service light up when Clear flips the switch in September.
Clearwire may be the first to hit Boston but it will not be alone for very long. Hot on the heels of Clearwire will be Verizon Wireless which has targeted Boston as one of the launch cities for its fledgling LTE service. Verizon has publicly tested its LTE service in a Boston eatery earlier this year and is slated to roll it out by the end of 2010.
Finally, MetroPCS may be joining Clear and Verizon as the third wireless carrier offering 4G service and the second to offer LTE. The regional carrier confirmed in its recent earnings conference call that it will launch its LTE service in Dallas Ft-Worth and Las Vegas in the upcoming months. With its smaller overall footprint, MetroPCS is planning to cover its entire network with LTE by the middle of 2011. Though Boston may not be the first to get MetroPCS’ brand the LTE, the service is tentatively targeted to debut by the end of 2010 or early 2011.
Handset offerings amongst the three carriers vary widely and may be the deciding factor for these lucky Boston residents who will have a choice for their 4G wireless service. Sprint has the upper hand with two 4G-enabled handsets in its portfolio, including the well known and very public HTC EVO 4G and the newly announced Samsung Epic 4G.
MetroPCS comes in second place with the Samsung Craft, which is the first LTE handset in the US and is shaping up to be a souped-up feature phone. Verizon comes in dead last, for the time being, as it intends to launch LTE dongles first, followed by handsets next spring. Of course, this pecking order may change if Verizon comes to its LTE launch party with a phone or two up its sleeve.
[Via The Boston Globe]