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Verizon Wireless has just announced 4G LTE availability in some new markets across the country. Customers in Corbin/Madisonville KY, Adrian/Mount Pleasant MI and Marietta OH can now enjoy the latest wireless network. This takes Verizon’s 4G LTE market coverage to 496 markets spread across the U.S. covering over 90% of the country! Verizon is nearing their goal of covering their entire 3G network with 4G LTE by the end of 2013 and delivering consistently fast data speeds. Most users on the network can expect to receive 5-12Mbps download and 2-5Mbps upload, while many users still report speeds far exceeding the average speeds.

Earlier this week Samsung announced the company had discovered the “world’s first 5G mmWave mobile technology.” The technology operates on an ultra high millimeter-wave band at 28Ghz, with a speed up to 1.056Gbps and a range of 2 kilometers. These wavelengths have never been considered for cellular technology but Samsung is tackling those problems using array transceiver technology with 64 antenna elements to counter the short wavelength. The 5G Samsung tests aren’t likely to be a reality anytime soon and the company doesn’t expect to see commercial implementation before 2020. The next thing that consumers can anticipate is 4G LTE-A (Advanced) with speeds up to 100Mbps, but it’s nice to know that wireless speed is looking at another huge breakthrough.

Recently AT&T has been ramping up their LTE deployment schedule and now offer LTE in more than 200 markets. This week LTE service arrived in Manhattan, Kansas, Sedalia and Warrensburg, Missouri, and Jacksonville and Palestine, Texas. In the summer they plan to launch an additional 77 markets to cover over 250 million POP’s throughout the U.S. Users in 4G LTE areas can expect average download speeds of 5-12Mbps and 2-5Mbps on the upload. AT&T’s 200 LTE markets may sound impressive, but they’re still far behind Verizon that currently has LTE coverage in 491 markets already covering 90% of their customer base.

 

Last week AT&T launched six new markets with 4G LTE including Flint, Michigan, Kokomo, Indiana, Morgantown, West Virginia, Petersburg, Virginia, Shelbyville, Kentucky and Springfield, Missouri. With this latest launch AT&T now offers 4G LTE in 190 markets giving users access to faster data speeds. They’ve indicated they’ll cover 300 million people by the end of 2014 and they appear to be ahead of schedule on the deployment of markets slated for a summer LTE launch. Users in LTE networks can expect around 5-12Mbps download and 2-5Mbps upload with lots of users seeing even faster speeds! They’re still far behind Verizon’s LTE network (Available in 490 markets), but they’re finally gaining some ground back on LTE network coverage.

Over the last year Sprint has been focused with their Network Vision rollout, which repurposes older iDEN frequency for 3G CDMA on 800Mhz, and allows them to deploy 4G LTE on their 1900Mhz frequency. In their first quarter earning conference CEO Dan Hesse said they haven’t “taken our eye off of operations” and "Irrespective of the two deals, we are running our business as if none of the deals are going to close and we have to remain a sustainable, standalone entity.” Some analysts worry that these potential deals could drain management's time and energy taking Sprint’s focus away from improving their wireless network. As of now Sprint will shut down their iDEN network on June 30th and have already launched 12,500 upgraded Network Vision towers, up from 8,000 that they reported on Feb. 7th. Sprint plans to cover over 200 million POPs with 4G LTE by the end of 2013, slightly down from their initial goal of 250 million.

According to Fierce Wireless T-Mobile will be able to move from standard 4G LTE to LTE-Advanced faster than other carriers like Verizon, AT&T and Sprint. The main reason they have the edge here is because their network equipment and radio access networks are already capable of supporting LTE-A, even though they’re currently only offering standard 4G LTE. As of now T-Mobile is at the bottom of the list when it comes to markets where LTE is available, but they could have bragging rights if they launched a 4G LTE-Advanced network before other carriers.

Current 4G LTE networks through the major carriers are designed to deliver speeds around 5-12Mbps download and 2-5Mbps upload. When carriers eventually upgrade their networks to LTE-A minimum speeds should exceed 100Mbps, which could give high end wired fiber services a run for their money, assuming the data caps scale with the increase in data speed. Right now T-Mobile customers can find 4G LTE coverage in seven markets including Baltimore; Houston; Kansas City; Las Vegas; Phoenix; San Jose, Calif.; and Washington, D.C. and T-Mobile CEO John Legere stated they’ll have New York City online with LTE by early summer.

If we compare LTE coverage with other carriers Verizon still tops the list with 491 cities, AT&T comes in second with 175 cities and Sprint in third with 90 cities. This puts T-Mobile at a pretty big disadvantage and they’ll face an uphill battle trying to build out their LTE or LTE-Advanced networks. A Verizon spokesperson has stated they plan to launch their 4G LTE-Advanced network in 2014 after their entire 3G network is upgraded to 4G LTE by the end of 2013. Only time will tell who will be the first to actually launch LTE-Advanced and if there will be any difference in speed between the carriers, right now they’re all pretty much equal in speed, so the biggest factor for potential customers is still going to be coverage where 4G LTE is available.

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (BUSINESS WIRE), April 23, 2013 - Sprint (NYSE: S) today announced that Sprint Data Link™ and Static IP networking services now operate over the Sprint 4G LTE network. Both products are compatible with 3G as well as 4G, and include upgrades that make it easier for businesses and government agencies to deploy, manage and extend an enterprise network to modems, tablets and handsets.

Sprint Data Link enables business networks to reach beyond the limits of a corporate enterprise WAN. Sprint Data Link provides mobile employees and connected devices with access to their mission-critical business information over a private wireless network, separate from the public Internet.

Sprint Data Link comes with a 99.9% availability service level agreement (SLA) and is supported on a vast array of 3G- and 4G-capable devices including handsets, tablets, laptops, mobile broadband cards, hotspots and M2M embedded modems. Uses range from setting up retail kiosks, seasonal storefronts, temporary offices, lottery terminals and wireline backup to remote monitoring and home healthcare.

Sprint Static IP assigns the same IP address to a device each time that device authenticates and accesses the Internet. It allows companies to more easily manage remote wireless devices including M2M applications, handsets and tablets. Sprint provides businesses with the ability to purchase a contiguous, sequential range or block of IP addresses, which can ease the deployment of devices and simplicity of firewall configuration.

“Sprint Data Link and Static IP provide businesses with highly effective tools to deploy and manage wireless devices,” said John Dupree-senior vice president of business sales, Sprint. “We are well-positioned to meet the demand for reliable, secure mobile data as our business customers take advantage of new technology, chipsets, devices and applications.”