14 DAY TRIAL // Mobile phone carrier Verizon wireless is expected to charge its customers between $10 and $15 more for the services offered via the upcoming Long Term Evolution network than it currently charges for services on its 3G network. There are great chances that Verizon would put in place premium plans for customers who are interested in benefiting from the enhanced data transfer speeds the carrier's LTE network would offer, at least this is what Verizon CFO John Killian suggested last week.
According to Heavy Reading senior consultant Berge Ayvazian, Verizon would charge its customers quite reasonable for LTE, a recent article on LightReading Mobile reads: “I expect Verizon to charge a $10 to $15 premium for 4G LTE service over straight EVDO.” Verizon's LTE network should be fired up during the fourth quarter of the ongoing year, and should cover the carrier's current 3G footprint by 2013. The first 4G services would become available for laptop users interested in faster downloads, it seems.
However, it would take a while before the first LTE-capable smartphones become available at Verizon, and there are great chances that the carrier would offer 3G/4G combo packages to its customers, at least in the beginning.
As for the price of Verizon 4G, Ayvazian says that it would be similar with Sprint's offering in the area: “Sprint already charges a $10 a month premium for 4G smartphone uses of the EVO, even if [customers] do not live in a 4G served area or find 4G coverage in any month. So this 4G premium is linked to the extent of 4G coverage, not just the performance.”
LTE is the 4G technology that currently sees the largest number of adopters among wireless carriers and mobile phone makers in the world, and is expected to be the dominant standard in a matter of years.
One of its main features is the cost reductions it offers to carriers when it comes to data transfers compared to what 3G can offer, but the deployment of the technology is costly enough to determine carriers charge more for it in the beginning.
However, Verizon did not announce officially how much it plans on charging subscribers for the faster services offered via LTE, and we'll have to wait for the that announcement to see what it has in store for users.