Verizon Announces West Virgnia LTE Launch Plans

[dirkbonn]

Information Week just announced that Verizon will have a press conference on October 27 with information about launching LTE in 10 metro areas in West Virginia. Read what little more info there is here:

Verizon Announces West Virgnia LTE Launch Plans -- InformationWeek

 

[buckguin]

So what does this mean for phones that arent LTE compatible (DroidX for example). Will no benefits be seen for those owners?

Does anybody find it odd that they chose West Virginia to launch it first??..lol

 

[jcash3]

I don't understand. Are there some phones coming out soon that will support it? I haven't really heard of any yet, but then again, I haven't been looking that much. I am satisfied with my current phone. It wouldn't make much sense to me for them to come out with the LTE network without phones being launched along with it. Maybe for testing purposes?

 

[AMDXP]

They're going to primarily target laptop users with a usb data card at first till the first phones come out in 2011.

 

[bigbadwulff]

Are there 10 metro areas in WVa?
Charleston/Huntington
Parkersburg
Morgantown
Clarksburg

Phillipi , Moorefield , Romney, Gorman ???

OK. I'm from Western Maryland originally. Might as well be WVa. I can poke fun all I want.


" download between 5 and 12Mbps and upload speeds between 2 and 5Mbps". Damn, that's what I get on Wi-Fi at home and that is fast!

 

[buckguin]

Are there 10 metro areas in WVa?
Charleston/Huntington
Parkersburg
Morgantown
Clarksburg

Phillipi , Moorefield , Romney, Gorman ???

OK. I'm from Western Maryland originally. Might as well be WVa. I can poke fun all I want.


" download between 5 and 12Mbps and upload speeds between 2 and 5Mbps". Damn, that's what I get on Wi-Fi at home and that is fast!

Dont forget about Fairmont..haha

 

[ECFfighter7232]

this is news I like to hear cause im looking at moving out there next year!! makes the move that much sweeter!! go verizon! get on that sh*t!

 

[Aggie12]

So what does this mean for phones that arent LTE compatible (DroidX for example). Will no benefits be seen for those owners?

Does anybody find it odd that they chose West Virginia to launch it first??..lol

We won't see any added benefit from this. And yeah. WV??? come on!?!?!

 

[tsanuri]

The reason for WV is quite simple. They sold off all their copper lines to frontier and made a huge profit from it. Now they can go back with LTE and compete with frontier using wireless. And since it is not a very large state in either size or population it makes a nice little testing ground.

 

[Martimus]

And since it is not a very large state in either size or population it makes a nice little testing ground.

I tend to disagree somewhat with part of this statement. LTE radios are separate from 3G radios. In order to implement, this Verizon will be placing additional radios and hanging antennas on their cell towers to support LTE. LTE connections will need to connect back to their upstream Internet service providers. In very rural areas high speed fiber optic connections are difficult to find because providers typically only deliver fiber in areas where it's cost can be justified. Verizon would, in some cases, be forced to use slower copper circuits instead.

To facillitate this connection they would need to place a router between the circuit and the radio. Routers that support fiber and/or DS3 circuits tend to be somewhat pricey. Now in areas where they're not pushing the capacities of their existing circuits, they might be able to consolidate their connections and make both the 3G and LTE radios use the same internet connection. This would require that they either install a line-speed switch between the router and the respective radios; or they could implement additional DHCP scopes on their routers to allow them to support the second radio on another Ethernet connection on the router. One challenge may be that additional DHCP scopes allocate IP address space that may or may not be available in the area. For this reason Verizon has to roll out IPV6. IPV6 is a good thing but will mandate that equipment connecting to it understand the IPV6 protocol or, at least, know how to connect through it. And if they are sharing internet uplinks the other radio might also need to be configured to support IPV6. And we haven't even discussed the upstream internet provider...

In the end result they add complexity to the implementation. For some rural radios, however, they might see little LTE traffic so this new infrastructure got built up only to not be used heavily...

 

[ifly61ce]

Most of the places I visit in WV are 1X only, very little 3G so maybe this was part of their reasoning.

I.E. Elkins, Clarksburg.

 

[buckguin]

Most of the places I visit in WV are 1X only, very little 3G so maybe this was part of their reasoning.

I.E. Elkins, Clarksburg.

This is true. In Morgantown, very seldom do I have consistent 3G.

 

[jkmasi]

I rarely even get 1x at my house in Baker....Sprint has some new towers on Corridor H between Wardensville and Moorefield, but I'm patiently waiting for Verizon service.

 

[prophet of doom]

I have no idea why they are launching it here first... i was thinking the other day that by the time it comes here there will be a ton of 4g phones out.. guess not lol... and there really isn't 10 metros in WV... the majority of people live in Charleston - Huntington..... but either way suck it i get it first woot!!!!

 

[ifly61ce]

WV had Byrd in Congress for a 100 years so there are lots of Government employees in the state, Clarksburg has the FBI, USDA has 2 facilities just outside of Charles town.
I am sure there are many more scattered around the state that I'm not aware of. West by god Virginia is not as backward as some people would assume.

 

[bigbadwulff]

Byrd. Backward.
Nail/ head.

With that said I love West Virginia. I always visit there when I go home. Went to the hippy-dippy place in Thomas last time there. Oh, what a .....................treat?

WVa: Forget the wind farms and dig up that coal!

 

[Martimus]

WV had Byrd in Congress for a 100 years so there are lots of Government employees in the state, Clarksburg has the FBI, USDA has 2 facilities just outside of Charles town.
I am sure there are many more scattered around the state that I'm not aware of.

I think we have a winner!

If Verizon has Government contracts, and I'm sure they do, implementing LTE for the benefit of Government employees in West Virginia could be part of the reason why it's going there...

 

[GregLXStang]

I agree totally with ifly61ce. Byrd did a whole lot for the state, and we have valuable government resources here. Remember the Greenbrier Shelter?

Anyway, I'm glad to hear this considering I live about 20 miles from Charleston and work in Charleston. And to the poster that said it's mostly 1X in WV, I'm seldom out of 3G service unless I go wayyyy out in the boonies. : )

 

[ECFfighter7232]

I agree totally with ifly61ce. Byrd did a whole lot for the state, and we have valuable government resources here. Remember the Greenbrier Shelter?

Anyway, I'm glad to hear this considering I live about 20 miles from Charleston and work in Charleston. And to the poster that said it's mostly 1X in WV, I'm seldom out of 3G service unless I go wayyyy out in the boonies. : )

Driving out 55 from 81 going to Moorefield there are several spots that have absolutely no signal. In moorefield in general im lucky to get more then 2 1x bars. Obviously that doesnt hold true for all of WV but I wouldnt call it way out in the boonies either.
I do love WV though. I cant wait to move out there.

 

[jkmasi]

Driving out 55 from 81 going to Moorefield there are several spots that have absolutely no signal. In moorefield in general im lucky to get more then 2 1x bars. Obviously that doesnt hold true for all of WV but I wouldnt call it way out in the boonies either.
I do love WV though. I cant wait to move out there.

Have you seen the new Sprint towers along Corridor H?? I can see one from my deck.... but not a drop of VZW service to be found... sad