Verizon: We're Not Playing Around With This LTE Thing > Kudos to Verizon

Kudos to Verizon

quote:

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...The carrier is offloading all of their unwanted, copper-based rural networks (and regulatory headaches, and union workers, and debt) to smaller telcos. They'll then come back into these markets in several years with LTE service that should out-perform first generation DSL and win many of those same customers back again. According to Melone, Verizon's actually ahead of where they thought they'd be, with LTE voice service on tap for 2011.

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It's really fairly ingenious. Unless you're one of their trade partners, union employees, or rural DSL customer -- forced to choose between $50 1.5 Mbps DSL and $1 per GB over a 100MB cap (or whatever insane price point they adopt) LTE....

It may also be another reason why Comcast is so giddy about updating their entire footprint, and not just exclusively within areas that currently feel the pressure of "competition". LTE would be a nice alternative to DOCSIS 1.1 performance.

reply to Karl Bode
Betcha LTE will have a 10-20GB cap with $1-$5 per GB overages. That said, I'm betting that an unlimited option will be available for those who can afford it (we're looking at $70 per month or so).

Also, Verizon has been conservative with their 3G speed claims; I'm guessing they actually outperform the 5-12/2-5 Mbps speeds. Probably 15/5 in uncongested areas, same as entry-level FiOS.

That will be a dream for me. VZW is the *only* (and I repeat, *only*) high speed ISP that reaches me. I pay $60 a month for an unlimited, grandfathered Alltel contract, which expires next August.

RevA reached me very quickly -- much faster than I thought -- but the tower I use lies along I-94 between Chicago and Detroit. I'm in a gorgeous little pocket of a huge state park and will never see cable or FIOS. I'm happy with VZW's service and being able to take my aircard on the road is wuuuuuunderful. If they were to sell routers at 12AM ala the iPod, I'd be waiting in line (as long as the cap isn't too restrictive. Screw 5G per month).

reply to Karl Bode
That's pretty much my point... It's a great plan for Verizon and its investors. Not so much for other folks...

Now, the article assumes those customers will be just fine with the higher price and bandwidth limits imposed by verizon on the LTE plans, otherwise they won't be getting them back no matter how fast the service is compared to DSL.

Keep in mind, for many potential customers, the cost would include wireless phone service. If it only costs an additional $40 to include LTE data performance, it might be more enticing to some.

reply to iansltx

I'd beg to differ. The "places 3G isn't available" are probably areas where the same towers can go farther due to use of 700MHz instead of 850MHz or 1900MHz on EvDO. Verizon uses a lot of 1900 for EvDO, so the coverage increase just due to lower frequency could be quite dramatic.

Well, keep in mind Verizon's working with a new FCC rule that expedites tower builds, and gives municipalities a month to respond to tower build requests...I imagine they really do believe that LTE is the wholesale answer to rural America. Whether this works in real world application, we'll see.

reply to ShellMMG

reply to jmn1207

reply to NickyG
We have the same router and yes, it does work great. My service has been excellent (especially when compared to satellite) and I hope to keep it until LTE becomes available, IF the caps are reasonable.