Verizon: LTE to Replace 3G By 2013

Rolling out a massive network upgrade can be about as slow as pouring molasses, so we think what Verizon has in store for its 4G/LTE efforts is exciting. After Verizon announced LTE plans and performed some minor testing last year, Verizon CTO Tony Melone said in an interview this week that the company plans to double its LTE market within 15 months of officially launching. Talk about aggressive! This means that LTE will be commercially available in 50 to 60 markets by mid-2012. The company also plans to completely replace 3G service with LTE by 2013.

When AT&T started its 3G rollout in late 2006 (then Cingular), it took a long time to gain serious market coverage. To this day, AT&T’s true 3G coverage is much smaller than Verizon’s. T-Mobile also took a long time getting its 3G coverage out and cities are still being activated even now. This just highlights how painfully slow and difficult it can be to upgrade a network and Verizon is prepping itself for that.

Melone says, “First we need to finish getting our infrastructure ready, which means getting all our antennas, our backhaul, and our leasing work with tower owners in order.”

Once Verizon’s LTE networks are up and running, we can expect to see 5-12Mbps download speeds and 2-5Mbps for uploads. At the lower end, LTE will be at least 250% faster than current 3G speeds which will likely make mobile browsing speeds comparable to your current home Internet experience. Barring any major hurdles, Verizon should have 4G up and running soon, and we’re looking forward to it.