It appears that folks in rural parts of the US where dial-up, satellite, and sometimes 3G are the only options for internet access may finally have something to really look forward to! Verizon has started to hint at how they will approach the rural market when they roll out their upcoming 4G LTE network. Verizon stated earlier this year that they're aiming to launch 25-30 markets by the end of 2010, but they haven't mentioned which specific markets they'll serve. They also have estimated that their LTE network will cover 100 million people by the end of the year and 200 million by 2012, and that by the end of the year 2013 they hope to have 4G coverage everywhere they currently have 3G coverage (about 90% of the country).
These goals seemed a bit lofty to some (for comparison, Sprint and CLEAR have had their 4G WiMAX network available for over a year now and it is still only available in about 30 markets). However, Verizon has now announced that they plan to partner with local companies that already have towers and backhaul available - Verizon will provide the LTE equipment and let the local providers manage the towers and backhaul. This helps to explain how Verizon anticipates on covering so many people so quickly, and also provides hope for rural users (since they don't have to wait for Verizon to build LTE towers in their area; they just have to wait for Verizon to partner with a provider in their area that already has a tower built).
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