After months of anticipation, on Wednesday Verizon officially revealed the U.S. metro areas that will get 4G LTE access by the end of 2010. And, in a surprise move, the company also announced that it will light up LTE in 60 airports as well, including many that are not part of the initial coverage areas.
Verizon president Lowell McAdam said, “We are driven by the vision to provide ubiquitous wireless broadband connectivity and mobility to rural and urban Americans alike. With our initial 4G LTE launch, we will immediately reach more than one-third of all Americans where they live, right from the start. And, we will quickly introduce 4G LTE throughout the Verizon coverage area.”
McAdam said that the 4G rollout will reach 110 million Americans at launch and that Verizon expects to blanket the entire country with 4G by 2013.
The 4G network will offer a major upgrade from current 3G networks by increasing real world download speeds to 5-12 Mbps and uploads to 2-5 Mbps, according to Verizon. The current 3G networks tend to average about 1.5-2.0 Mbps downloads and 500 Kbps - 1 Mbps uploads. The 4G network will also have better initial response time and will do a better job of penetrating walls and buildings.
Keep in mind that none of today’s Verizon smartphones are equipped with 4G LTE radio chips so they will not be able to take advantage of all that extra speed. Verizon will start by selling 4G modems, dongles, and mobile hotspots that people can use to connect existing devices via USB (or Wi-Fi using a mobile hotspot). Next year the company will start selling devices with embedded LTE chips.
In terms of when exactly the 4G network will be available for customers to start using, McAdam said “We will give a specific date as we get a little bit closer.” That makes it sound like we’re probably talking about the last 4-6 weeks of the year.
Here are the lists of the lucky cities and airports:
The metro areas
- Akron, Ohio
- Athens, Georgia
- Atlanta, Georgia
- Baltimore, Maryland
- Boston, Massachusetts
- Charlotte, North Carolina
- Chicago, Illinois
- Cincinnati, Ohio
- Cleveland, Ohio
- Columbus, Ohio
- Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas
- Denver, Colorado
- Fort Lauderdale, Florida
- Houston, Texas
- Jacksonville, Florida
- Las Vegas, Nevada
- Los Angeles, California
- Miami, Florida
- Minneapolis/Saint Paul, Minnesota
- Nashville, Tennessee
- New Orleans, Louisiana
- New York, New York
- Oakland, California
- Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
- Orlando, Florida
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Phoenix, Arizona
- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- Rochester, New York
- San Antonio, Texas
- San Diego, California
- San Francisco, California
- San Jose, California
- Seattle/Tacoma, Washington
- St. Louis, Missouri
- Tampa, Florida
- Washington, D.C.
- West Lafayette, Indiana (Purdue University is doing “a fully integrated wireless campus”)
- West Palm Beach, Florida
The airports
- Austin-Bergstrom International, Austin, Texas
- Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshal, Glen Burnie, Maryland
- Bob Hope, Burbank, California
- Boeing Field/King County International, Seattle, Washington
- Charlotte/Douglas International, Charlotte, North Carolina
- Chicago Midway International, Chicago, Illinois
- Chicago O’Hare International, Chicago, Illinois
- Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International, Covington, Kentucky
- Cleveland-Hopkins International, Cleveland, Ohio
- Dallas Love Field, Dallas, Texas
- Dallas/Fort Worth International, Fort Worth, Texas
- Denver International, Denver, Colorado
- Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
- George Bush Intercontinental/Houston, Houston, Texas
- Greater Rochester International, Rochester, New York
- Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International, Atlanta, Georgia
- Honolulu International, Honolulu, Hawaii
- Jacksonville International, Jacksonville, Florida
- John F. Kennedy International, New York, New York
- John Wayne Airport-Orange County, Santa Ana, California
- Kansas City International, Kansas City, Missouri
- La Guardia, New York, New York
- Lambert-St. Louis International, St. Louis, Missouri
- Laurence G. Hanscom Field, Bedford, Massachusetts
- Long Beach/Daugherty Field, Long Beach, California
- Los Angeles International, Los Angeles, California
- Louis Armstrong New Orleans International, Metairie, Louisiana
- McCarran International, Las Vegas, Nevada
- Memphis International, Memphis, Tennessee
- Metropolitan Oakland International, Oakland, California
- Miami International, Miami, Florida
- Minneapolis-St. Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, Minneapolis, Minnesota
- Nashville International, Nashville, Tennessee
- New Castle, Wilmington, North Carolina
- Newark Liberty International, Newark, New Jersey
- Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International, San Jose, California
- North Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada
- Orlando International, Orlando, Florida
- Orlando Sanford International, Sanford, Florida
- Palm Beach International, West Palm Beach, Florida
- Philadelphia International, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Phoenix Sky Harbor International, Phoenix, Arizona
- Phoenix-Mesa Gateway, Mesa, Arizona
- Pittsburgh International, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- Port Columbus International, Columbus, Ohio
- Portland International, Portland, Oregon
- Rickenbacker International, Columbus, Ohio
- Ronald Reagan Washington National, Arlington, Virginia
- Sacramento International, Sacramento, California
- Salt Lake City International, Salt Lake City, Utah
- San Antonio International, San Antonio, Texas
- San Diego International, San Diego, California
- San Francisco International, San Francisco, California
- Seattle-Tacoma International, Seattle, Washington
- St. Augustine, Saint Augustine, Florida
- St. Petersburg-Clearwater International, Clearwater, Florida
- Tampa International, Tampa, Florida
- Teterboro, Teterboro, New Jersey
- Trenton Mercer, Trenton, New Jersey
- Washington Dulles International, Dulles International Airport, Washington, D.C.
- Will Rogers World, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
- William P. Hobby, Houston, Texas
This article was originally published on TechRepublic.
