San Francisco – Verizon
Wireless will go to January’s International CES with an array of 4G-equipped
devices ranging from tablets, 3G/4G smartphones and machine-to-machine products
following the launch later this year of its 4G 700MHz LTE network in 38
markets, Verizon president/COO Lowell McAdam said during the CTIA convention
here.
The products,
including “devices for video,” will be available in the first half of 2011
following the launch later this year of wireless modems for laptops, McAdam
said.
Without referring
to the recent decision by FLO TV to wind down its direct-to-consumer mobile TV
subscription service, Verizon Wireless chief technical officer Tony Melone
noted that in friendly user trials, “as expected,” the network was “very, very
conducive to video, upstream video and downstream video.” Verizon “plans to
exploit the network for that use,” he added.
Without saying that Apple will bring its
iPhone or iPad to Verizon’s LTE network, McAdam did say, “I expect at some
point our business interests are going to align.” He then pointed to LTE as a
good reason for Apple to bring its products to Verizon.
The network, he
said, will deliver 10 times the speed of Verizon’s 3G network with half the
latency, the executives said. When the network was fully loaded during friendly
user trials, Melone explained, downlink speeds ranged from 5Mbps to 12Mbps, and
uplink speeds ranged from 2Mbps to 5Mbps. Latency was 30ms.
McAdam said he’d
reveal the precise 4G launch date and pricing plans at a later date. In the 38
launch markets, the 4G footprint will on average cover about 70 percent of the
carrier’s 3G footprint in those markets, McAdam said. LTE networks will also be
online at that time in 62 airports, including seven airports not in the 38
markets, and on the Purdue University campus in Lafayette, Ind.
Within 18 months
from today, McAdam continued, the network will expand to markets with a
population of about 200 million people, and by the end of 2013, the 4G network
will reach almost as many people as Verizon’s 3G network, or more than 285
million people, he said.
The LTE footprint
will expand beyond that under a plan in which rural carriers will lease Verizon-owned
700MHz spectrum, McAdam added. Verizon will partner with those carriers to help
them obtain better prices on infrastructure and allow their subscribers to roam
on Verizon’s network, he said. Five carriers have already reached agreements
with Verizon, and another 12 are finalizing agreements, McAdam said.
In other comments,
McAdam said the LTE products demonstrated at CES will all be made by
“mainstream OEMs.” Melone said that planned smartphones will be dual 3G/4G
phones offering simultaneous 3G voice and 4G data. And “clearly over time,” McAdam
said, Verizon will add pay-per-MB data plans to complement unlimited data plans
because of “finite spectrum.”
Melone also noted that LTE offers “quantum
leaps” in “spectrum and capital efficiency,” enabling Verizon to build out its
LTE network with “no big spike” in its capital expenditures.
Major markets included in the 4G launch are Boston,
New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington and Rochester, N.Y. in the
Northeast. Other markets include Miami and south Florida; Atlanta; Dallas-Fort
Worth and Houston; New Orleans; Charlotte, N.C.; Nashville, Tenn.; Chicago; St.
Louis; the Minneapolis-St. Paul; Pittsburgh; major cities in Ohio; Seattle;
Phoenix; Denver; Las Vegas; and major population centers in California.
Here’s the full
list:
Akron, Ohio
Athens, Ga.
Atlanta, Ga.
Baltimore
Boston
Charlotte, N.C.
Chicago
Cincinnati
Cleveland
Columbus, Ohio
Dallas-Fort Worth
Metroplex, Dallas, Texas
Denver
Fort Lauderdale
Houston
Jacksonville, Fla.
Las Vegas
Los Angeles
Miami
Minneapolis/Saint
Paul
Nashville, Tenn.
New Orleans
New York
Oakland, Calif.
Oklahoma City
Orlando, Fla.
Philadelphia
Phoenix
Pittsburg
Rochester, N.Y.
San Antonio
San Diego
San Francisco
San Jose
Seattle/Tacoma
St. Louis
Tampa, Fla.
Washington
West Lafayette,
Ind.
West Palm Beach,
Fla.
