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A Snapshot of The Big Four's LTE Deployments
While all four major wireless carriers profess to have the nation's "largest 4G network," there remains some obvious differences in LTE deployment. Fierce Wireless has compiled a good breakdown of where things currently stand among the country's big four in terms of LTE coverage. Verizon continues their lead with 301 million potential customers (POPs) covered, followed by AT&T (225 million POPs), T-Mobile (167 million POPs), and Sprint (POPs not provided). Both Sprint and T-Mobile got late starts, but are rapidly gaining ground in their fight against AT&T and Verizon. Have you noticed improvements?
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psiu
join:2004-01-20
Farmington, MI

psiu

Member

POPs?

Point of Presence? Prophet of Profit? Post Office Protocol? For this article, I think the best one in context would be Pissed Off People. Verizon: 301 million potential POPs!
dantello
join:2013-08-20
Jarrell, TX

dantello

Member

Re: POPs?

Potential Over Payers.

mrherzog
join:2001-05-06
Calgary, AB

mrherzog

Member

Re: POPs?

hahaha, Nice!!

cb14
join:2013-02-04
Miami Beach, FL

cb14 to dantello

Member

to dantello
+1

antonio010
join:2002-11-24

antonio010 to psiu

Member

to psiu
said by psiu:

Point of Presence? Prophet of Profit? Post Office Protocol? For this article, I think the best one in context would be Pissed Off People. Verizon: 301 million potential POPs!

Haha that was great! Completely agree. Regardless of who you have, VZW and ATT grossly overcharge, T and Sprint are too unreliable at this point to be viable contenders.

tiger72
SexaT duorP
Premium Member
join:2001-03-28
Saint Louis, MO

tiger72

Premium Member

Re: POPs?

said by antonio010:

Haha that was great! Completely agree. Regardless of who you have, VZW and ATT grossly overcharge, T and Sprint are too unreliable at this point to be viable contenders.

YMMV. Sprint was great until they got the iPhone, then their network went from 'ok' to crap. T-Mobile has been great for me throughout. In fact, i've had quite a few friends who went from Verizon to T-Mobile who are getting better service because T-Mobile's coverage in this city is pretty dense for the most part.

FFH5
Premium Member
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

FFH5

Premium Member

US top 3 in world on LTE coverage

The US is in the top 3 in world in LTE coverage along with S.Korea & Japan. US is way ahead of the EU in this regard. The US carriers are spending 10's of billions of dollars in infrastructure upgrades to effect this LTE rollout.

josephf
join:2009-04-26

josephf

Member

Re: US top 3 in world on LTE coverage

European telecom has always been a mess.
sonicmerlin
join:2009-05-24
Cleveland, OH

sonicmerlin to FFH5

Member

to FFH5
said by FFH5:

The US is in the top 3 in world in LTE coverage along with S.Korea & Japan. US is way ahead of the EU in this regard. The US carriers are spending 10's of billions of dollars in infrastructure upgrades to effect this LTE rollout.

US carriers have the greatest economies of scale (outside of China Unicom), and charge some of the highest prices in the world. No duh they have such great coverage.

IPPlanMan
Holy Cable Modem Batman
join:2000-09-20
Washington, DC

IPPlanMan

Member

Hurry the hell up Sprint

Sprint needs to hurry the hell up and actually/officially launch LTE in DC.

What's the point of an LTE-capable phone without actual LTE coverage?

ropeguru
Premium Member
join:2001-01-25
Mechanicsville, VA

ropeguru

Premium Member

Re: Hurry the hell up Sprint

I said the same thing with Verizon when I purchased the original Droid but they only provided 1x coverage and no 3G. I was impressed when I went back to that location and thye now have LTE installed. Was in the area last weekend and was getting 50Mbps download speeds.
xenophon
join:2007-09-17

xenophon to IPPlanMan

Member

to IPPlanMan
That map is probably 6 months old. Sprint is in STL, Portland, Denver and a bunch of other markets not on the map.

Is pointless to do a report like that based on very old data.

Everyone bashed sensorly maps for not being complete but it shows 3X more Sprint coverage than the map in report...

»sensorly.com/map/4G/US/U ··· 10sprint

n2jtx
join:2001-01-13
Glen Head, NY

n2jtx to IPPlanMan

Member

to IPPlanMan
said by IPPlanMan:

Sprint needs to hurry the hell up and actually/officially launch LTE in DC.

They don't even have coverage onto Long Island from NYC and no indication it is coming any time soon. We never got Sprint's 4G WiMax service either.
xenophon
join:2007-09-17

xenophon

Member

Re: Hurry the hell up Sprint

Take a closer look, LTE is starting to rollout through LI. This is just what's reported by users so is probably more than this. Last month there was nothing in LI so it's just now kicking into gear.

»sensorly.com/map/4G/US/U ··· 10sprint
grayem
join:2000-09-22
Saint Louis, MO

grayem

Member

Sprint map is not complete

I am getting 4g in suburban areas of St Louis, MO but there is nothing on the map in the area. for what thats worth.
xenophon
join:2007-09-17

xenophon

Member

Re: Sprint map is not complete

Yeah, it doesn't show a bunch of markets including STL. STL rollout started about 2-3 months ago, the Sprint map they have is probably 6 months old.
Madtown
Premium Member
join:2008-04-26
93637-2905

Madtown

Premium Member

Cricket

Would be nice if Cricket have LTE here in Madera.

delusion ftl
@comcast.net

delusion ftl

Anon

Re: Cricket

At this point, if you are on Cricket, I would look at switching to T-mobile/MetroPCS. They have LTE in Fresno and merced so it's only a matter of time before it gets to you, plus you get t-mobiles hspa+ 4G until then, all for probably less than you currently pay.

You can get something like the optimus L9, or F3 for pretty cheap.

Their towers are near the intersection of schmoor and sunset, by the Mormon church there. Another over by D and 7th, and also at the 6 food mart on Yosemite and Tozer, and by Farnesi's restaurant/hotel. There are other towers in town but they are 2G used to supplement voice coverage. If those locations work well for you I think you'll find it a better experience.

This would also keep you from getting absorbed into the death star (ATT) with their newly announced plans to purchase cricket. And it's unlikely Cricket will build any new LTE markets.

EliteData
EliteData
Premium Member
join:2003-07-06
Philippines

EliteData

Premium Member

LTE

ive noticed "spotty" coverage for LTE on TMOBILE but as usual, if you have a poor LTE signal, expect speeds to be no greater than WCDMA (HEDGE) in which case, the WCDMA (HEDGE) signal is always much better.

JakCrow
join:2001-12-06
Palo Alto, CA

JakCrow

Member

Re: LTE

I have tmo LTE closer to the major freeways, and my home. I get great speeds on either LTE or HSPA+ so I'm not too worried.

ilikeme
Premium Member
join:2002-08-27
Stafford, TX

ilikeme to EliteData

Premium Member

to EliteData
said by EliteData:

ive noticed "spotty" coverage for LTE on TMOBILE but as usual, if you have a poor LTE signal, expect speeds to be no greater than WCDMA (HEDGE) in which case, the WCDMA (HEDGE) signal is always much better.

There is no such thing as "HEDGE." Its either LTE, HSDPA/WCDMA, EDGE, or GPRS.

EliteData
EliteData
Premium Member
join:2003-07-06
Philippines

EliteData

Premium Member

Re: LTE

Click for full size
said by ilikeme:

There is no such thing as "HEDGE." Its either LTE, HSDPA/WCDMA, EDGE, or GPRS.


pahuser
@noaa.gov

pahuser

Anon

Maps inaccurate

Most of west KY is LTE covered with VZW. Map shows a big hole there.
silbaco
Premium Member
join:2009-08-03
USA

silbaco

Premium Member

LTE

US Cellular also has a large LTE deployment. In fact it very possibly covers more miles than Sprint's LTE network.

pepe3849023
@northwestern.edu

pepe3849023

Anon

Re: LTE

Maybe, but only if what Sprint defines as 'select cities' ends up being less square miles of coverage than the large chunks shown on USCC's maps online. See here:

»www.uscellular.com/cover ··· tor.html

»coverage.sprint.com/IMPACT.jsp?
ocjosh
join:2013-03-19
Anaheim, CA
·T-Mobile
·Verizon Wireless

ocjosh

Member

My area is getting better

I am with Sprint and the coverage grows bigger and fast. The coverage density improved a lot, I can stay on LTE whole day in metro LA to OC area no problem now. Still some black holes with no coverage (roaming) inside metro area, for example: that's 0.3 miles away from the tower for some reason, but it's LTE in full next corner.
TechGuy0073
join:2013-08-23
Rancho Cucamonga, CA

TechGuy0073

Member

Great T-Mobile LTE Coverage in Los Angeles

I have a combination of 12 lines of different devices for my business in Los Angeles and I am super happy I waited out the LTE growing pains while t-mobile was upgrading its towers. Our experience with LTE has not disappointed us one bit. It is super fast and my sales teams report point of sale transactions take mere seconds to authorize out in the field. Not long ago I was at a convention and shared my tmobile service via a Cradlepoint Wireless Router with nearby vendors who just happened to be on Sprint and what a misery for them trying to complete sales or send large PDF informational files to attendees via email. I had a total of 35 connections to my cradlepoint and Tmobile LTE did not fail any of us. I know the feeling being with a provider and being told the upgrades are coming time and time again. Tmobile has definitely earned my business for the long run in providing wireless service for my company.

delusion ftl
@comcast.net

delusion ftl

Anon

Re: Great T-Mobile LTE Coverage in Los Angeles

I just spent a week down there in various places between San Bernardino and San Diego and I was also impressed with their LTE network. I had other LTE devices in tow from other carriers and while there still are many t-mobile towers that haven't received LTE yet, it's in most places, and where they do have it, it's fast and reliable. I have screenshots of a zero bar LTE connection reliably doing 50ms pings and 6mbit+ throughput.

So-cal is a 10x10 market for T-Mobile, so you get to play in the same league as the big boys (ATT/VZW) without any of the costs and hassle and many times less the customers to share that bandwidth with.

minidu
Premium Member
join:2002-09-28
Cheboygan, MI

minidu

Premium Member

I have LTE in the middle of nowhere Michigan

I switched to sprint about 4 months ago, and now have LTE in a town where prior to them doing about 8 days ago it was 1x, I'm probably one like 20 people with Sprint in my town but ATT still only has edge there.

I'm pretty impressed with the growth of LTE with sprint, hopefully they turn the 800 towers here on and it will be fantastic.

mix
join:2002-03-19
Romeo, MI

mix

Member

Re: I have LTE in the middle of nowhere Michigan

Out of town boaters will rejoice next Labor Day weekend!

WK2
Premium Member
join:2006-12-28
united state

WK2

Premium Member

Sprint is coming

Just recently near my house I have began seeing Sprint LTE light up on my iPhone 5....Should not be too much longer for me to have LTE coverage where I need/want it the most.
sava700
join:2005-03-08
united state

sava700

Member

coverage

There are too many gaps in some states that have more than 90% coverage, why not correct those gaps than expanding more states that have less than 50% coverage?

TmoSpeedfrk
@comcast.net

TmoSpeedfrk

Anon

Tmobile has outstanding speeds

My speed tests for michigan (detroit, ann arbor, and lansing LTE deployments) are on average 30/20 (30 down 20 up). Usually ot ranges between 25-31 and 15-22 respectively.

SimbaSeven
I Void Warranties
join:2003-03-24
Billings, MT
·StarLink

SimbaSeven

Member

at&t is rather pethetic..

Looking at that map makes me laugh my ass off. They're not really trying at all, except in the large cities.

Verizon is butchering them all, even in the rural market. No wonder my Skyrocket (ST at&t) doesn't pick up LTE.. it's non-existent here.
kalanic00
join:2006-07-16
Anchorage, AK

kalanic00

Member

Happy with Verizon LTE in Alaska

Seems to be working great up here in the Anchorage and Mat-Su areas. I had to turn on my personal hotspot to help a few merchants process my credit card purchase on thier AT&T and GCi wireless devices at the Alaska State Fair. Towers have historically been unable to handle the influx of devices during the fair. Looking forward to seeing how Verizon LTE holds up during the Fur Rondezvous and other major events.
RonV
join:2003-12-19
Hoffman Estates, IL

RonV

Member

T-Mobile and Chicago area LTE

T-Mobile is really coming together here in the Chicago area. My entire commute, half tollway, half local streets and highway, is now covered by LTE. For my 70 minutes on the road I can now stream music and podcasts without having to pre-download at home or the office and Gas Buddy loads so fast.