Verizon Wireless Plans 4G Connectivity In 30 Cities This Year
All of the nation's top cellular providers are fighting to get their next generation, 4G networks up and running as fast as they can. This week, we learned that Verizon Wireless plans to offer 4G connectivity in 30 NFL Cities by the end of this year.
Back in August, a roadmap of Verizon Wireless' 4G plans leaked that indicated the carrier plans to have upwards of 120 million people covered by the end of 2010. The carrier plans to offer 4G connectivity for all of its customers at some point and has put a great amount of focus on this goal. Bernie McMonagle, a Verizon Senior federal sales executive, indicated the carrier plans to have its entire 3G footprint switched over to 4G by the end of 2013.
According to McMonagle, Verizon Wireless' cell sites are being upgraded to Gigabit Ethernet where possible. This will provide the backhaul capacity that is required to support the bandwidth requirements of LTE. The first phase of Verizon Wireless' 4G network is designed to support download speeds of 5Mbps to 12Mbps and upload speeds of 2Mbps to 5Mbps.
Verizon Wireless hasn't specified which cities are going to get the 4G goodness or when, but we will point out that there are only 32 NFL cities. Verizon Wireless is using the LTE (Long Term Evolution) standard for its 4G network.
