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Verizon 4G LTE roll-out spreads in Virginia as competition gets intense

Categories: AT&T, Hardware, LTE, Verizon
By: , IntoMobile
Thursday, November 10th, 2011 at 1:38 PM
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The 4G LTE roll-out on Verizon Wireless continues and this time, the carrier has announced it will flick the switch in Roanoke, Virginia and nearby communities on Nov. 17. Last December, Verizon announced a goal of reaching over 185 million Americans by the end of 2011, and in less than one week, it will have fulfilled that promise. Verizon’s LTE network will officially be available in 178 cities nationwide and will cover more than 186 million Americans after Nov. 17.

While Big Red pushes forward with 4G speed, it’s now facing the heat from its biggest competitor. AT&T launched its LTE network in five major markets back in September — Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago, Houston, and San Antonio — and expects (or at least hopes for) coverage for fifteen by year’s end. AT&T may be way behind Verizon right now, but when it does work, the 4G network is said to be fast and furious averaging 23.6 Mbps down. AT&T’s first LTE smartphones, the HTC Vivid and Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket, went on sale November 6th. Nokia’s colorful Lumia 800 may hit the network some time next year with 4G LTE.

According to a yesterday’s report from Localytics, customers have been choosing speed over reliability. 56 percent of iPhone 4S users are sucking up data from AT&T instead of Verizon or Sprint. If that’s the case, Verizon’s 4G LTE network could face troubled waters in the years to come, even if it currently has a head start.

About The Author

George Tinari

George has followed technology news for quite some time, but he only started writing about it a few years ago. He's a self-proclaimed Apple fanboy, but that doesn't stop him from covering a wide range of topics in the mobile area. When he's not reporting for IntoMobile, you can usually find George listening to a wide array of music, trying to be funny and sarcastic, eating, or voicing his opinions about all things tech on his personal blog, GT Daily.

  • http://twitter.com/strifejester Justin Ellenbecker

    Most people I think are tied to AT&T because of contracts and whenever the phones are released most people can’t wait to be completely out of contract and just renew because they are used to what they have.  Many of the people that own the devices never get to try another network and if it works for what they are doing that is fine.

  • http://twitter.com/J_Dav1 J_Dav1

    AT&T’s network barely has anyone on it. If everyone doesn’t remember Verizon’s network was blasting speeds regularly in the 30mbps range when first launched. It was naturally going to slow down with all the phones and other devices on it, although, I still get around 20mbps even at peak times of the day.