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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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Marking yet another milestone in its rollout of 4G LTE connectivity, Verizon today announced that with another major expansion coming later this week, the carrier's LTE network will now cover two-thirds of the United States population. This week's expansion, officially going live on Thursday, will see coverage in 27 new markets and expansion of coverage in 44 existing markets.
Verizon Wireless, owner of the nation’s largest 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) network, today announced that it will cover more than two-thirds of the U.S. population when it introduces its 4G LTE network in 27 new markets and expands in 44 markets on April 19. With the new and expanded markets, Verizon Wireless continues to lead the industry in 4G LTE deployment, offering network coverage in 230 markets across the United States.
By the end of the year, Verizon expects to have LTE coverage available in over 400 markets, making the next-generation data speeds available for 260 million people, or well over 80% of the U.S. population.

ipad_lte_signal.jpg

Verizon, which is leading the major U.S. carriers in LTE deployment, boasts real-world speeds of 5-12 Mbps download and 2-5 Mbps upload. AT&T is also rapidly building out its LTE network, and while it is behind Verizon in its rollout, it does offer faster fallback 3G speeds than Verizon does. Sprint, the third major U.S. carrier to offer the iPhone, has yet to officially launch its LTE services as it seeks to migrate away from WiMAX as its 4G technology, although its LTE network should debut in its first round of markets in the near future.

Apple currently offers LTE compatibility through AT&T and Verizon on the new iPad, with separate models offering the support on each carrier. The company has, however, been embroiled in some controversy in international markets, where its "4G" claims have been targeted by regulators seeking to determine whether Apple has been providing adequate disclosures that the devices will not be compatible with LTE networks in those countries due to differences in the frequencies being used by the carriers.

Article Link: Verizon's LTE Network to Reach Two-Thirds of U.S. Population This Week
 
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Fuchal

macrumors 68030
Sep 30, 2003
2,603
1,057
5-12Mbps download? I've regularly been seeing 40-54mbps on Verizon.
 

aristobrat

macrumors G5
Oct 14, 2005
12,292
1,403
5-12Mbps download? I've regularly been seeing 40-54mbps on Verizon.
Yeah, you know that's not going to last for long. :D

I think Verizon's being smart by trying to set the expectation of how life will be once there's 20 million iPhone users on their LTE network.
 

iMaven

macrumors 6502
Jan 21, 2011
324
23
glad I'm locked into unlimited data.... next iPhone, here I come!

They might not grandfather the unlimited data because it's moving from 3G to LTE and a non sim card iPhone to a sim card iPhone. They will most likely make everyone move to the LTE tiered plan. However, if they decide to let everyone keep the unlimited plan...:cool:
 

highlnd

macrumors newbie
Nov 8, 2011
25
0
Damn you AT&T, get off your A$$ and expand. I'm regretting my iPad LTE purchase now. I should probably have gone WiFi only.
 

buffalo

macrumors 65816
Jun 5, 2005
1,085
2
Tacoma, WA
Things could've changed, but when I upgraded to a Droid Bionic last October, I was grandfathered from unlimited 3G into an unlimited 4G plan... Very nice.
 

gadgetfreak98

macrumors 6502
Feb 6, 2009
273
163
Yeah turns out you have unlimited 3G data. As many VZ and ATT customers are discovering, transitioning to 4G LTE requires that you give up your lock-in and get on the price-per-byte treadmill. :(

One correction as pertains to the AT&T iPad with LTE. If you had maintained your grandfathered unlimited plan from the iPad 1, it converts over to unlimited LTE. I can confirm from personal experience this is the case as I am one of those grandfathered people. It is what swayed me to the AT&T version, notwithstanding Verizon's greater coverage of the US.

----------

Things could've changed, but when I upgraded to a Droid Bionic last October, I was grandfathered from unlimited 3G into an unlimited 4G plan... Very nice.

Yes, as I noted in my concurrently posted reply, AT&T does exactly that. The nuance, of course, is that on the iPad, AT&T is currently not throttling. On the iPhone, that is obviously not the case, so if/when the iPhone 5 comes out sporting LTE, those of us on grandfathered unlimited plans can expect to hit the speed-crushing throttling limit in no time.
 

jdsipod

macrumors member
Feb 25, 2011
80
8
Iowa City, IA
They might not grandfather the unlimited data because it's moving from 3G to LTE and a non sim card iPhone to a sim card iPhone. They will most likely make everyone move to the LTE tiered plan. However, if they decide to let everyone keep the unlimited plan...:cool:


As long as he doesn't sign a new contract and pays the upgrade price for the phone I would believe he gets to keep his unlimited data plan. It will however be interesting to see if people that are locked into an unlimited 3G plan will get to keep that if they switch to a LTE iPhone
 

meecect

macrumors newbie
Aug 3, 2009
29
0
Prediction:

There has been a lot of speculation about apple getting into the tv market, including the news that SJ had told his biographer that he had finally cracked the problem.

Apple rarely releases something unless it has the complete package. If it does, it terms it a 'hobby'. That means hardware, software, content providers, media distribution system, etc, all need to be in place for Apple to consider it a flagship product.

SJ's problem with TV was the business model, crappy hardware, even crappier software and the balkanization, as he put it. But you can't improve hardware and software while the cable companies business model is in the way.

I predict that we will see some form of apple tv. Whether it is a full tv or another add-on box won't be the big deal. Sure, it might have Siri as an interface, and maybe it will bring iOS apps to the tv, maybe a new apple remote based on iOS.

The big feature, however, will be that it will have an LTE or other 4g data interface.

I predict that when SJ was talking about 'cracking' the TV problem, he was referring not to hardware or software, which are easy to crack, frankly, but on finally finding a way to get around the cable provider's strangle hold on content distribution.

Apple has spent the last five years building relationships with the telcos. The telcos have much wider distribution than any individual cable provider. The data speeds are now good for streaming video. The iPad3 is now a testing grounds for lte connection + iCoud media distribution.

The telcos would also love to kill the cable companies off, and the telcos, at this point in time at least, aren't as competitive in the content space as some of the cable carriers are.

I think Apple and Verizon/ATT are looking at the giant multibillion dollar cable industry and are right now deciding how they are going to slice it up.

The only tricky part was probably convincing content providers that they could make more money selling season passes and ala carte show purchases than they are currently making by being bundled into a cable companies package offer. That might have been a tough sell.

I guess we will soon see.
 

MikhailT

macrumors 601
Nov 12, 2007
4,582
1,325
5-12Mbps download? I've regularly been seeing 40-54mbps on Verizon.

They're telling us what they expect to be the reasonable speed once the entire country is on 4G LTE. Right now, you're seeing the faster speed because not everybody is on it right now and thus there's plenty of bandwidth. Eventually, the network will get more utilized and the bandwidth available for each cell device on the network will get smaller.

By that time, we'll need 5G network to get faster speed.
 

edenwaith

macrumors 6502a
Aug 7, 2001
689
90
How about the other 20%?

Once they reach 99% and have proper coverage in the more rural states, then I'll be impressed.
 
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Codyak

macrumors 6502
Apr 6, 2012
370
127
DC
Good thing I got unlimited 4G/LTE now with them now, especially if the next iPhone is LTE. Also I think they say they 5-12 just to be on the safe side. Better to under promise and over deliver!
 

johncrab

macrumors 6502
Aug 11, 2011
341
0
Scottsdale, AZ
With my iPad3 and AT&T LTE service, I am getting a consistent 25-27Mbps in various markets where I travel. It's upper-mid-tier cable speed. It just screams. If a top speed of 12 is all Verizon is offering, I made the right choice.
 

sandman42

macrumors 6502a
Oct 23, 2003
959
59
Seattle
Damn you AT&T, get off your A$$ and expand. I'm regretting my iPad LTE purchase now. I should probably have gone WiFi only.

Ditto. I bought the AT&T iPad because I'm grandfathered into the unlimited plan, but I can't find any info for when I should expect to actually see LTE service in the Seattle area.
 

azentropy

macrumors 601
Jul 19, 2002
4,013
5,353
Surprise
Kinda wish I would have went with the Verizon version now. First the hotspot, which was announced after I ordered and didn't want to change and risk not getting one on launch day, and now mass expansion. The other reason I went with AT&T because their 3G is so much faster in areas where neither had LTE.
 

Herdfan

macrumors 65816
Apr 11, 2011
1,057
7,548
Once they reach 99% and have proper coverage in the moral rural states, then I'll be impressed.

I agree. Lighting up one tower that only covers the downtown area should not be considered as having that market lit up.
 

surma884

macrumors regular
Feb 21, 2011
109
0
AT&T and Sprint need to pick up their pace. We need more competition. I really hope Sprint makes it. I want to get on their unlimited plan.
 

WannaGoMac

macrumors 68030
Feb 11, 2007
2,722
3,990
And if the stupid carriers were forced to use the same frequencies and towers we would have 100% by now. Instead 3 different LTE networks.
 

physicsguy13

Contributor
Oct 5, 2010
365
93
Huntiingon Beach, CA
With my iPad3 and AT&T LTE service, I am getting a consistent 25-27Mbps in various markets where I travel. It's upper-mid-tier cable speed. It just screams. If a top speed of 12 is all Verizon is offering, I made the right choice.

Of course you are getting those speeds since there are far fewer people on the ATT LTE network. If more people sign up for ATT in your area then your speeds will drop.
 

ks-man

macrumors 6502a
Sep 25, 2007
742
15
If LTE can deliver 5-7Mb down consistently even after millions of people switch over that would be fantastic. 3 years ago that was considered lightning fast internet download speeds through your home internet connection. It will be plenty fast for regular on the go browsing and even video streaming.

High end iPad gaming over the internet might require higher download and solid upload speeds (2-3Mb+) but for 95% of people who are looking to browse the net and stream audio/video through their phones and tablets, a steady 5-7Mb down should be excellent.

Don't get me wrong, the more speed the better but I just don't know that we'll all appreciate in real world terms the upgrade from say 7Mb down to 40Mb down.
 
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