New 4G LTE Markets

[eaglesfant37]

Verizon announced that 4g will be coming to Harrisburg by the end of the year. I go to school 30 minutes outside of Pitt and get 4g coverage there. Do you think I will get it at my home which is about 20-25 minutes SE of Harrisburg? I don't understand why State College is getting 4G before the Central PA cities other than Penn State being there. All of the 4 main Central PA cities (Reading, Lancaster, York, Harrisburg) are in the top hundred largest metropolitan areas in the country and there are going to 145 or so 4G markets. It's between York and Pittsburgh where nothing exists except for the Appalachian Mountains. Sorry for that rant lol.

 

[spm826]

how do you know state college will receive 4g before harrisburg?

 

[atrain311]

I guess I'm thinking something similar. I just read, thanks to this forum, that Albany, NY is getting 4g by the end of the year and I was getting excited. But now that I think about it, I live in Saratoga, which is about 30 miles north of Albany and I think I was just assuming it meant the surrounding areas too. Kinda worried it's not gonna happen for me.

 

[redraider1]

how do you know state college will receive 4g before harrisburg?

state college already has 4g thats how.

 

[redraider1]

Verizon announced that 4g will be coming to Harrisburg by the end of the year. I go to school 30 minutes outside of Pitt and get 4g coverage there. Do you think I will get it at my home which is about 20-25 minutes SE of Harrisburg? I don't understand why State College is getting 4G before the Central PA cities other than Penn State being there. All of the 4 main Central PA cities (Reading, Lancaster, York, Harrisburg) are in the top hundred largest metropolitan areas in the country and there are going to 145 or so 4G markets. It's between York and Pittsburgh where nothing exists except for the Appalachian Mountains. Sorry for that rant lol.

I agree I live in central pa and it is nice that harrisburg is getting 4g but i cant believe they wouldnt have it in reading/lancaster area those are both large metropolitan areas. I just cant wait til 4g comes to harrisburg since I live about 10 minutes from harrisburg and work in harrisburg.

 

[eaglesfant37]

I agree I live in central pa and it is nice that harrisburg is getting 4g but i cant believe they wouldnt have it in reading/lancaster area those are both large metropolitan areas. I just cant wait til 4g comes to harrisburg since I live about 10 minutes from harrisburg and work in harrisburg.

Yeah, I thought up until a couple a weeks ago that Lancaster and Reading would be able to pick up at least extended 4G from Philly, but they kept the 4G really close to the city where as in Pittsburgh the 4G is spread out much further in all directions. Where I go to school is an extremely small town about 1/4 of the size of where I live, but it's covered by 4G.

 

[jrm390]

Verizon announced that 4g will be coming to Harrisburg by the end of the year. I go to school 30 minutes outside of Pitt and get 4g coverage there. Do you think I will get it at my home which is about 20-25 minutes SE of Harrisburg? I don't understand why State College is getting 4G before the Central PA cities other than Penn State being there. All of the 4 main Central PA cities (Reading, Lancaster, York, Harrisburg) are in the top hundred largest metropolitan areas in the country and there are going to 145 or so 4G markets. It's between York and Pittsburgh where nothing exists except for the Appalachian Mountains. Sorry for that rant lol.

I'd say because 95% of State College use data. Not sure what % will use it in Harrisburg but I'm sure it's a lot lower than that.

 

[nkk]

I'd say because 95% of State College use data. Not sure what % will use it in Harrisburg but I'm sure it's a lot lower than that.

+1

I go to CMU in Pittsburgh, and I would be willing to bet that one reason Pittsburgh gets all of these high tech things is not population, but the fact CMU, UPITT, Duquense, and 4 or so other universities are here, along with their research centers. The rest of the population is not so necessary, as I am sure the college students alone justify putting good data connections here, be it 3G, Verizon FIOS, 4G, or whatever.

-Nkk

EDIT: by High Tech things, I meant much more than LTE. Pittsburgh has a surprisingly large High Tech industry going given the coal mining population roots.

 

[brucipher]

I hear ya! I am from Lancaster and am hoping the Hbrg coverage is broad and reaches me!

 

[sundoll]

The coverage map on VZWs website has a footnote for the 4g Extended Coverage that "certain conditions may cause your service to connect to 3G in this Area." Anyone know what those conditions are? Is it a setting on the TB or am I just at the mercy of the network to expand?

Austin has some decent extended coverage, including my university, but when I have been on campus this week it hasn't picked up 4G - when I enter a school address into VZWs applet, it says that yes, it's a 4G area.

 

[AustinTech]

Sometimes you have to restart your phone to pick up the 4G signal. If you are in a confirmed 4G area, rest assured its working.

 

[sundoll]

Turning it off and back on didn't do the trick. It picks up 4g automatically when I cross into the full coverage area, but it's the extended coverage area that's not working. Still really curious as to what those "certain conditions" are...

 

[spm826]

state college already has 4g thats how.

Other than being there and using it, or knowing somebody who has, how do we know this?? The coverage map shows it merely as a city dubbed to get LTE by the end of 2011... have u used 4g in state college?

 

[spm826]

Was in state today and had no 4g connection on my bolt.

 

[fujiteam]

I would not trust the coverage maps. I was traveling last weekend and was excited to use LTE in Baltimore and Detroit, but when I got the Hartford, CT airport there was 4G coverage. Even better in downtown Hartford there is 4G coverage. Neither place is listed on the current maps.

You could be pleasantly surprised in Reading, Lancaster, York, ect. in the coming months.

 

[dyezak]

Verizon is rolling out LTE at such a fast pace to stay ahead of AT&T while they can, that those coverage maps are going to lag... I'd rather the coverage maps be out of date then them slow their LTE rollout.

 

[fujiteam]

Verizon is rolling out LTE at such a fast pace to stay ahead of AT&T while they can, that those coverage maps are going to lag... I'd rather the coverage maps be out of date then them slow their LTE rollout.

That is my thought as well. I imagine they are turning towers on as soon as they go up. They may not update a map until all the planned towers are up and the coverage is clear over a larger area. I would not take the "coming soon" stuff ont eh VZW website as the be all and end all. As I said the Hartford airport is covered but not listed in the airport category.

 

[sundoll]

Does anyone know how they are handling cities that have airport 4g but nothing else? Austin was one of the initial airports to get service but wasn't included as part of the major city rollout. Now that the next target cities have been announced, Austin isn't on it and the other Texas cities that are on it are much smaller markets. Are they just going to boost the signal from the airport so that coverage goes city wide? Or does another tower need to go up and I'm screwed waiting for them to hopefully put us on future rollout plans?

 

[eaglesfant37]

Lol ok. Now Bethlehem pa is getting 4g before York, Lancaster, Reading. This is getting a little ridiculous now.

 

[WormDoes]

According to droid-life, VZW will be "flipping the switch" on a "mess of new 4G LTE cities" this Thursday

 

[LoyalServant]

According to droid-life, VZW will be "flipping the switch" on a "mess of new 4G LTE cities" this Thursday

They already did it.
Columbia, SC was supposed to be Thursday but It's up right now.
It came up just after 1am this morning.. been form one side of town to the other and I cannot complain!

 

[WormDoes]

They already did it.
Columbia, SC was supposed to be Thursday but It's up right now.
It came up just after 1am this morning.. been form one side of town to the other and I cannot complain!

That's sweet, but it doesn't mean that every city/town on that list now has coverage

 

[Thunder22]

new 4g areas in CT:




1. Bradley Airport, CT
2. Wallingford, CT
3. East Hartford 4, CT
4. Bridgeport West, CT
5. Plattsville, CT
6. Fairfield, CT
7. Westport South, CT
8. Saugatuck, CT
9. New Canaan South, CT
10. Norwalk, CT
11. Darien, CT
12. Stamford, CT
13. Stamford West, CT
14. North Stamford, CT
15. Riverbank, CT
16. Greenwich, CT
17. Greenwich SW, CT
18. Banksville, CT
19. Fairfield 5, CT
20. Stamford 4, CT
21. Greenwich NW, CT
22. West Greenwich, CT
23. Westport 2, CT
24. Greenwich 3, CT
25. Bridgeport SW, CT
26. Cranbury, CT
27. Norwalk 2, CT
28. Rippowam, CT
29. Weston, CT
30. North Norwalk, CT

 

[Ibrick]

Here's hoping Milwaukee and Madison are on the Thursday schedule..

We were on list for the first round of cities in 2011..

I'm curious how far north the 4G tenticles reach as I'm about 15min north of Milwaukee county.

 

[LoyalServant]

That's sweet, but it doesn't mean that every city/town on that list now has coverage

Never said that...
It is up in my area.. but I think it's a work in progress.

One issue I have noticed is that handoffs between base stations are not very graceful.
I can force it to change base stations sitting here now and if a stream is playing it will drop as soon as the buffer empties and it has to reconnect to the stream.
The second issue is that it seems very very bursty at times.
I think these are issues with the mobile speedtest app. (yes even after the update.)

The mobile speedtest app reports a ping into the Columbia, SC speed test server @ ~130ms yet I can tether (USB) and run the desktop version on the client computer and only get ~50ms to the same server.
The speeds reported on the mobile version range from 8-10 megabits down and 3-5 up, while the desktop version reports upwards of 18-20 megabits down and 4-5 up.
That's quite a difference....

Using the speedtest app in the browser on the phone (change your user agent) gives me results that are identical to the desktop version running on the tether.
Using the speakeasy speed test on both ives me identical results.

The only conclusion that I can draw is that Verizon needs to work on base station handoffs and the ookla people need to work on their app


UPDATE: looks like they fixed the app. there was an update on the market that resolved the dependencies between mobile and browser.
The mobile app results is now inline with the browser results for me.
Based on all of the 1 star reviews people were giving it I would say they had a problem