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Today Verizon Wireless announced 5 new 4G LTE markets across the country. This brings their market total to 491 cities that covers slightly over 90% of the U.S. population with that latest wireless technology. Customers in a 4G LTE market can expect to see around 5-12Mbps download and 2-5Mbps upload, with many customers seeing speeds substantially higher than the average. Verizon hopes to have their entire 3G network footprint covered with 4G LTE coverage by the end of 2013. Below is a list of the latest 4G LTE markets to go live:

• El Centro, CA
• Fort Dodge, IA
• Middlesboro, KY
• Harlan, KY
• Paducah, KY
• East Liverpool, OH

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (BUSINESS WIRE), April 18, 2013 - Sprint (NYSE:S) today announced the availability of its all-new 4G LTE network to customers in 21 more markets, including Los Angeles, Contra Costa County, Calif., Charlotte, N.C., Norfolk, Va., and Memphis, Tenn. With the Sprint 4G LTE network, customers in the following areas will be able to experience faster speeds for uploading photos, surfing the Web, and streaming videos.

The 21 new Sprint 4G LTE markets:

• Albemarle, N.C.
• Bloomington, Ind.
• Charlotte, N.C.
• Contra Costa County, Calif.
• Denison, Texas
• Greeneville, Tenn.
• Joplin, Mo.
• Kerrville, Texas
• Lafayette, Ind.
• Lincolnton, N.C.
• Los Angeles
• Mankato/North Mankato, Minn.
• Memphis, Tenn.
• Norfolk/Virginia Beach/Newport News, Va.
• Palm Bay, Fla.
• Port St. Lucie, Fla.
• Rochelle, Ill.
• Salisbury, N.C.
• Shelby, N.C.
• Tullahoma, Tenn.
• West Palm Beach, Fla.

“Today more Americans are using smartphones and tablets to consume entertainment, GPS and applications than ever before,” said Bob Azzi, senior vice president-Network, Sprint. “In fact, in 2012, Sprint achieved annual smartphone sales of nearly 20 million. All this requires improved network reliability and speed. Sprint’s customers will experience immediate benefits on the 4G LTE network when they stream videos, socialize, play games and interact with thousands of apps using our unlimited data plans.”

Sprint continues to bring a better wireless experience to more customers across the country as it builds out its all-new 3G and 4G LTE network. Many Sprint customers are discovering Sprint 4G LTE in cities that haven’t yet officially been announced, including Washington, D.C., New York and San Francisco. Sprint has announced more than 170 markets where LTE will be available in the coming months, and is adding the following markets to that list today:

• Fargo, N.D.
• Orlando, Fla.
• Portland, Ore.
• Spokane, Wash.
• Tallahassee, Fla.
• Albertville, Ala.
• Centralia, Wash.
• Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
• Durant, Okla.
• El Paso, Texas
• Enid, Okla.
• Enterprise/Ozark, Ala.
• Eugene/Springfield, Ore.
• Faribault/Northfield, Minn.
• Greenville, Miss.
• Hattiesburg, Miss.
• Jacksonville, Texas
• Kennewick/Pasco/Richland, Wash.
• LaGrange, Ga.
• Longview, Texas
• Longview, Wash.
• Milledgeville, Ga.
• Moses Lake, Wash.
• Paducah, Ky.
• Picayune, Miss.
• Poplar Bluff, Mo.
• Russellville, Ark.
• Seaford, Del.
• Sterling, Ill.
• Talladega/Sylacauga, Ala.
• Tulsa, Okla.
• Valdosta, Ga.
• Wenatchee/East Wenatchee, Wash.
• Yakima, Wash.

NEW YORK – Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ) today reported strong first-quarter 2013 earnings growth, driven by record margins at Verizon Wireless and continued strong cash flow and year-over-year revenue increases for wireless, FiOS and strategic enterprise services.

Verizon reported 68 cents in EPS in first-quarter 2013, a 15.3 percent increase compared with first-quarter 2012 earnings of 59 cents per share.  There were no adjustments in either quarter.

“Verizon is off to an excellent start in 2013,” said Lowell McAdam, Verizon chairman and CEO.  “Our strategic investments in wireless, wireline and global networks have given us the platforms to sustain momentum and take advantage of growth opportunities in key markets for broadband, video and cloud services.  With ongoing improvements in operating efficiency, we expect continued growth in free cash flow and earnings as we move through the year.”

Consolidated

• 68 cents in earnings per share (EPS), a 15.3 percent increase compared with 59 cents per share in 1Q 2012.
• 4.2 percent year-over-year increase in total operating revenues; cash flow from operating activities up $1.6 billion, or 26.4 percent, from 1Q 2012.

Wireless

• 8.6 percent year-over-year increase in both service revenues and retail service revenues in 1Q 2013; 32.9 percent operating income margin and 50.4 percent segment EBITDA margin on service revenues (non-GAAP), both record highs.
• 677,000 retail postpaid net additions, up 35 percent year over year; low retail postpaid churn of 1.01 percent; 98.9 million total retail connections, 93.2 million total retail postpaid connections.
• 4G LTE service now available to 287 million people in 491 markets across the U.S.

Wireline

• 188,000 FiOS Internet and 169,000 FiOS Video net additions, with continued increased sales penetration for both services; FiOS revenues up 15.1 percent year over year, to $2.6 billion.
• 4.3 percent year-over-year increase in consumer revenues; consumer ARPU up 9.5 percent year over year, to $107.15
• 6.0 percent year-over-year increase in revenues for global enterprise strategic services.

According to The Wall Street Journal Verizon is attempting to pursue spectrum leases from Clearwire and is willing to pay $1.5 billion for any potential deals. This comes shortly after Crest Financial, the largest minority shareholder in Clearwire urged them to reject the Sprint offer of $2.97 per share, which they called “inadequate”. When Clearwire disclosed Verizon’s offer they referred to them as “Party J”, but those familiar with the deal have confirmed that it was Verizon. It appears that the wireless battles are heating up and this could be a counter after the recent news where Dish is trying to partner with Sprint. Only time will tell who ends up with what, but it looks like the wireless carriers are hungry to grab as much spectrum as possible right now.

As of now Sprint has been focused deploying 4G LTE in mid sized cities avoiding larger markets like New York City to make sure everything is running smoothly first. Sprint has promised to bring LTE to NYC for a while now and some have spotted it around the city. Last week Sprint launched ten new markets, one of which being Los Angeles, which is one of the largest markets they’ve launched LTE service in to date. To date Sprint has officially launched 67 markets with 4G LTE giving them a larger marketplace, but still falling far short of both Verizon and AT&T LTE coverage. Users in 4G LTE coverage areas can typically expect to receive 5-12Mbps download and 2-5Mbps upload.

 

 

Now that T-Mobile has finally released their fourth generation LTE network they’ve been encouraging iPhone 5 users to move to their network. Shortly after the pre-order period started on T-Mobile in the U.S. they also released a carrier update, which will bring LTE to all T-Mobile iPhone customers running iOS 6 or above. In addition to LTE support customers will also gain access to visual voicemail and improved battery life from T-Mobiles optimized network. If you already have an iPhone 5 on another carrier the good news is as long as the device is unlocked you won’t have to purchase an iPhone through T-Mobile, just contact your local T-Mobile store and they can set it up on their network. However, if your iPhone isn’t carrier unlocked and done via a jailbreak T-Mobile specifically said they aren’t allowed to activate and phones must be officially unlocked first.

Earlier this week AT&T senior VP Kris Rinne stated that they plan to deploy HD voice by the end of 2013. The strategy involves using their new 4G LTE network to deliver HD voice, but is not the same as VoLTE, which has already proven to be a huge battery hog cutting runtimes in half. Carriers like T-Mobile and Sprint have already deployed their version of HD voice and it doesn’t eat nearly the bandwidth or battery that VoLTE does. The only downside to HD voice is the quality will not be nearly as good as what full fledged VoLTE enabled devices will offer when the service debuts early next year.