Verizon LTE Coverage By The End of 2010!

[Scott Hammel]

Very exciting news! Looks like most major cities will be hot with LTE at launch but I'm not sure how far LTE reaches out. For example, it will be launching out of Denver but how far out does LTE coverage go? Will it reach out east or just be available in the metro area? Definitely something I need to read up on. Anyway, I'm very excited to get an LTE device sometime before next season starts up!

 

[Jason Foster]

Combine this with Wednesday announcement about the Verizon iPhone coming in early 2011, they are doing a good job eating away at the competition.

AT&T really is lagging behind.....as I said somewhere else.....I'm ready with the last nail in the AT&T coffin.

Of course I'm stuck with Sprint because I still have unlimited usage with them. Good thing too...I but 5g every month (I was close to 7 or 8g in September).

 

[Nick Nolte]

This is a cleverly designed map. If one skips over the very tiny legend, the lay person may see all that red and say, wow look at all that 4G coverage.

That said, yes, AT&T is lagging, and should the rumor-that-never-dies come true that Verizon gets the iPhone in 2011, I may be ending my contract ahead of time. It's ridiculous to not have any 3G along the I-94 corridor between Gary, IN and Ann Arbor, MI.

 

[Ben Holcomb]

Heck, the map is misleading and not in their favor - The white space says 'Data Coverage Not Available' which isn't actually true for a lot of the white spaces - They are just not 3g and areas of roaming. The red is all their areas of 3g. The dots are areas of LTE, which I assume will only be available in metropolitan areas to start.

 

[Skip Talbot]

Of all the places I haven't chased, its amazing how many of the areas lacking 3G coverage I have chased several times. I've chased the holes west of Jacksonville, IL, western OK, southwest MN, and southwest IA several times each. Of course there would probably be no coverage at all there on ATT.

 

[Brandon Jenkins]

Its so funny to hear all the AT&T bashing, but on may 10th after intercepting a couple of tornadoes east of OKC i had to rely on my AT&T blackberry tethered to my laptop because my verizon aircard (connected to my cell amp) could not get a signal. Don't get me wrong, I won't be throwing my verizon aircard out anytime soon, and I would probably switch to verizon if I wasnt under contract with AT&T (assuming they do get an iphone), but so far I have had great service with AT&T and I was very thankful for those sporadic radar updates when verizon failed me

 

[Skip Talbot]

Its so funny to hear all the AT&T bashing, but on may 10th after intercepting a couple of tornadoes east of OKC i had to rely on my AT&T blackberry tethered to my laptop because my verizon aircard (connected to my cell amp) could not get a signal. Don't get me wrong, I won't be throwing my verizon aircard out anytime soon, and I would probably switch to verizon if I wasnt under contract with AT&T (assuming they do get an iphone), but so far I have had great service with AT&T and I was very thankful for those sporadic radar updates when verizon failed me

Its not really ATT "bashing." The truth is ATT's coverage is vastly inferior when compared to Verizon and Sprint. I have both Verizon and ATT, and only use ATT as a backup for when I've got technical glitches or the rare times when ATT does have signal over Verizon. Its usually the other way around, however. There are huge chunks of plains states where you get no ATT coverage at all. Most of ATTs coverage is also their Edge network, which works fine for radar updates, but is much slower than 3G and doesn't really cut it for streaming. A good example of the difference is South Dakota, where huge chunks of the state have no coverage at all on ATT while Verizon has high speed 3G coverage through most of it.

 

[Brandon Jenkins]

Its not really ATT "bashing." The truth is ATT's coverage is vastly inferior when compared to Verizon and Sprint. I have both Verizon and ATT, and only use ATT as a backup for when I've got technical glitches or the rare times when ATT does have signal over Verizon. Its usually the other way around, however. There are huge chunks of plains states where you get no ATT coverage at all. Most of ATTs coverage is also their Edge network, which works fine for radar updates, but is much slower than 3G and doesn't really cut it for streaming. A good example of the difference is South Dakota, where huge chunks of the state have no coverage at all on ATT while Verizon has high speed 3G coverage through most of it.

I agree, I use it only as a backup and admittedly only do so the further south I am. But coverage in the north (central Kansas onward) is almost non existent off of major highways and what not with AT&T. Seeing as I still retain a decent discount with AT&T from years past I doubt I will consider dumping them until my contract expires in 2012 but I would never consider using them for mobile broadband

Just seems like the topic gets beaten to death over and over when discussing other networks that we know are vastly superior for 3G coverage. I just take some amusement out of those situations where I can only access AT&T and my amp'ed air card is basically dead to the world, and honestly it happens more than a couple times a year but frequently requires me to be on EDGE with AT&T and not 3G. Also note that I did not stream at all this year and have not in years past but will this coming year and I have no preconceived notions that my tethered iphone will allow this anywhere outside of the metro areas.

 

[Jason Foster]

The map was obvious to me. One of my buddies is way too into this stuff (probably like non-weather person trying to put up with us), and from what I've gathered is that LTE is very limited at first, much like Sprint's venture into WiMAX (4g). However, the roll out will be much faster, which jives with the fact Verizon has the largest budget and resources to upgrade it's system than any other carrier. It also has the purchasing power to keeps it's vendors prices low (the Wal-Mart affect).

AT&T is not a good network overall. I refer to the multiple threads already here on ST that in my opinion have clearly delineated that AT&T is inferior. I also will add that AT&T cell & data uses I know (or follow on twitter) have had many comments about dropped calls and lack of coverage. Here in DC for instance, there are so many users, the system often is overloaded. I've seen this in many of the large east coast cities, which by region is the largest cell market.

I suspect in the future it will take a merger or buyout for AT&T to be competitive with the large Verizon data network, and even to a degree Sprint.

The real question to me is Verizon or Sprint.

 

[Scott Hammel]

Yeah the AT&T network has been beaten to death here and in a way I kind of feel bad for them and their customer base. It's not all bad for them as they are rolling out their LTE network eventually but are currently a little over a year behind Verizon in that regard. As far as the iPhone on Verizon rumor, I don't doubt it will happen at some point but until Steve Jobs is actually on a stage with a microphone saying those exact words, I don't buy it. Personally, you couldn't pay me to buy another iPhone, Verizon or not...