Verizon Wireless is an unstoppable beast when it comes to 4G LTE. Earlier this year their network was declared to be the fastest one currently up and running in the United States, with an average download speed of 9.5 Mbps and upload speed of 1.4 Mbps. That’s well within the company’s claims of delivering between 5 Mbps and 12 Mbps down, and we’ve seen peaks hitting over 40 Mbps easily in some markets. The fact that Verizon is using the 700 MHz band for LTE also means that they can cover more people faster than other operators, such as Clearwire for example, who has been rolling out WiMAX on the 2500 MHz band! Everyone’s slowly catching up though. AT&T just launched their LTE network last month, Sprint has said that they’re going to adopt LTE, and T-Mobile … well, they’re still tooting their 42 Mbps HSPA+ horn, which we’ve got no problem with since it’s plenty fast if you’re in a good coverage area. Still, it’s Verizon who everyone looks up to when it comes to building the best network money can buy.
Earlier this week they announced that over the next 35 days they’re going to light up 35 additional LTE markets; see full list below. In other words, on November 17th they’ll be 178 cities in America that can take advantage of the best wireless broadband in the country.
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On October 20th, service will be active in Birmingham, Alabama; Modesto and Stockton, California; Fort Myers, Florida; Bloomington, Elkhart, Evansville, South Bend and Terre Haute, Indiana; Sioux City, Iowa; Hagerstown, Maryland; Tupelo, Mississippi; Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico; Buffalo, New York; Asheville, North Carolina; Bartlesville, Oklahoma; Jackson and Martin, Tennessee; Greater Hampton Roads and Richmond, Virginia and Green Bay, Wisconsin. Verizon will also expand the existing footprints in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Erie, Pennsylvania cities on the same day. On November 17th, Verizon Wireless will deploy 4G LTE in Little Rock, Arkansas; Savannah, Georgia; Cedar Rapids and Des Moines, Iowa; Lexington, Kentucky; Kansas City and Springfield, Missouri; Lincoln, Nebraska; Orange County, New York; Greater Providence; Rapid City, South Dakota; Roanoke, Virginia; and Appleton, Wisconsin. It will also expand the exiting footprints in in Louisville, Kentucky; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Nashville, Tennessee, on November 17th.