Verizon Wireless, America’s largest operator, has just announced that they’ll be turning on 4G LTE coverage in 19 additional markets, including Dayton, Fresno, Hartford, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, and Spokane, starting tomorrow. That’s going to bring the total number of cities covered with 4G LTE up to 74. Verizon Wireless Chief Technology Officer David Small is also saying that the operator has agressive plans to introduce 4G LTE coverage to wherever there’s currently 3G coverage by the end of 2013. The news comes as a blow to AT&T, who has only recently announced plans to launch 4G LTE in five major cities at some point during this summer. It’ll take AT&T a few years to offer the same footprint of 4G LTE coverage that Verizon has today, but there’s something a lot of people overlook, and that’s how fast current 3G technology can go.
T-Mobile uses a technology called HSPA+ to deliver a theoretical connection speed of 42 Mbps. Real world testing shows it gets a little over half that, but it’s still on par, and in some cases even faster, than what Verizon offers. This is important because say T-Mobile decides to roll out a 4G LTE network, when you’re not attached to it you’ll be “downgraded” to the 42 Mbps HSPA+ network, which should provide comparable speeds, if not a tad bit slower. AT&T is in the process of upgrading their current 3G network to support HSPA+, rumor has it that it’s the 21 Mbps flavor. When you’re not in AT&T’s 4G LTE coverage area, you’ll still likely get 10+ Mbps download speeds, whereas today with Verizon if you’re not in a 4G LTE area you’re knocked back down to EV-DO, which does 3 Mbps on a good day. There’s also likely to be a larger number of HSPA+ devices coming out compared to the frankenstin combination CDMA/LTE handsets that have to be custom built to support Verizon’s network. In other words, Verizon may be the first to give customers high speed wireless access with 4G LTE, but in the long run AT&T and T-Mobile, because of their use of GSM technology, has the best long term outlook.