14 DAY TRIAL // Starting with Sunday, December 5th, 2010, mobile phone carrier Verizon Wireless is offering 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) services in the United States in a number of 38 markets and 60 commercial airports, just as the company announced not too long ago.
With this roll-out, Verizon becomes the largest LTE services provided in the US market, though it is not the first company to add them to its offering (MetroPCS started offering LTE connectivity a few months ago).
According to Verizon, while the initial deployment covered a number of 38 markets in the country, future plans include the roll-out of the network on the carrier's entire 3G footprint by 2013.
When compared to the older 3G CDMA network, the new 4G LTE solution can offer impressively faster speeds. On 3G, users enjoyed speeds of 0.6 – 1.4 Mbps, while being able to taste 5 – 12 Mbps on 4G. The uplink speeds would range between 2 – 5 Mbps. You can watch a video ad for Verizon's 4G network at the bottom of this article.
Last week, the wireless carrier went official with roll-out details for its 4G LTE network, and unveiled the fact that its customers would have a USB modem available for them at launch, with more devices set to land in the not too far future.
The LG VL600 USB modem was made available on Sunday with a price tag of $99.99 attached to it, upon the signing of a two-year contract agreement with the wireless carrier. If purchased free of contract, the device would cost $249.99.
The same price tag would be attached to the Pantech UML290 modem, when it would land on the carrier's airwaves. Both devices come with support for Verizon's 3G network.
As for the plans that Big Red put in place for its users, we can count a $50 monthly plan with 5GB of data included into the mix, and an $80 option, with 10GB of monthly data.
No mobile phone was made available for purchase at the moment, nor did Verizon unveil official plans to carry a specific one in the near future. However, the carrier is expected to announce these devices at CES in January, and to put them on sale in Mid 2011.
Additional info on Verizon's 4G LTE offering can be found on the carrier's website here. Below you will find a list of the 38 markets that enjoy LTE from Big Red at the moment. The 60 commercial airports where LTE was made available are listed below as well.
Verizon's current 4G LTE markets:
Akron; Cincinnati; Cleveland; Columbus, Ohio Athens; Atlanta, Georgia Baltimore, Maryland Boston, Massachusetts Charlotte, North Carolina Chicago, Illinois Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, Dallas; Houston; San Antonio, Texas Denver, Colorado Fort Lauderdale; Jacksonville; Miami; Orlando; Tampa; West Palm Beach, Florida Las Vegas, Nevada Los Angeles; Oakland; San Diego; San Francisco; San Jose, California Minneapolis/Saint Paul, Minnesota Nashville, Tennessee New Orleans, Louisiana New York; Rochester, New York Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Philadelphia; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Phoenix, Arizona Seattle/Tacoma, Washington St. Louis, Missouri Washington, D.C. West Lafayette, Indiana
The list of commercial airports included in Verizon Wireless' 4G LTE deployment includes: (Airport Name, City, State)
"Austin-Bergstrom International, Austin, Texas Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshal, Glen Burnie, Maryland Bob Hope, Burbank, California Boeing Field/King County International, Seattle, Washington Charlotte/Douglas International, Charlotte, North Carolina Chicago Midway International, Chicago, Illinois Chicago O’Hare International, Chicago, Illinois Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International, Covington, Kentucky Cleveland-Hopkins International, Cleveland, Ohio Dallas Love Field, Dallas, Texas Dallas/Fort Worth International, Fort Worth, Texas Denver International, Denver, Colorado Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International, Fort Lauderdale, Florida George Bush Intercontinental/Houston, Houston, Texas Greater Rochester International, Rochester, New York Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International, Atlanta, Georgia Honolulu International, Honolulu, Hawaii Jacksonville International, Jacksonville, Florida John F. Kennedy International, New York, New York John Wayne Airport-Orange County, Santa Ana, California Kansas City International, Kansas City, Missouri La Guardia, New York, New York Lambert-St. Louis International, St. Louis, Missouri Laurence G. Hanscom Field, Bedford, Massachusetts Long Beach/Daugherty Field, Long Beach, California Los Angeles International, Los Angeles, California Louis Armstrong New Orleans International, Metairie, Louisiana McCarran International, Las Vegas, Nevada Memphis International, Memphis, Tennessee Metropolitan Oakland International, Oakland, California Miami International, Miami, Florida Minneapolis-St. Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, Minneapolis, Minnesota Nashville International, Nashville, Tennessee New Castle, Wilmington, North Carolina Newark Liberty International, Newark, New Jersey Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International, San Jose, California North Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada Orlando International, Orlando, Florida Orlando Sanford International, Sanford, Florida Palm Beach International, West Palm Beach, Florida Philadelphia International, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Phoenix Sky Harbor International, Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix-Mesa Gateway, Mesa, Arizona Pittsburgh International, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Port Columbus International, Columbus, Ohio Portland International, Portland, Oregon Rickenbacker International, Columbus, Ohio Ronald Reagan Washington National, Arlington, Virginia Sacramento International, Sacramento, California Salt Lake City International, Salt Lake City, Utah San Antonio International, San Antonio, Texas San Diego International, San Diego, California San Francisco International, San Francisco, California Seattle-Tacoma International, Seattle, Washington St. Augustine, Saint Augustine, Florida St. Petersburg-Clearwater International, Clearwater, Florida Tampa International, Tampa, Florida Teterboro, Teterboro, New Jersey Trenton Mercer, Trenton, New Jersey Washington Dulles International, Dulles International Airport, Washington, D.C. Will Rogers World, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma William P. Hobby, Houston, Texas"