Verizon 4G LTE is now available in more than 500 markets

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fastest LTE network of them all? According to reports by both RootMetrics and PC Mag, the answer to that question is actually AT&T.

In a recent RootMetrics report, Verizon averaged 14.3Mbps down and 8.5Mbps up. In contrast, AT&T managed an average of 18.6Mbps and 9Mbps. While AT&T’s results certainly are impressive, Verizon doesn’t seem to be the least bit worried.

According to Verizon’s chief network officer Nicola Palmer, LTE service is about “more than just speed, we provide speed where you want it, when you want it.” In other words, Verizon’s coverage might not be as fast, but it is certainly a hell of a lot more widespread.

Just today the company turned on several new LTE locations such as Parkersburg (WV), Liberal (KS) and Warren (PA). What’s most exciting is that these latest three rollouts push Verizon’s market total to over 500, which is quite an accomplishment when you consider there were only 100 LTE markets just eight months ago.

For those keeping score, Verizon’s latest push brings their LTE coverage to more than 95 percent of the US population, and covers around 99 percent of the company’s 3G network. Meanwhile AT&T currently covers only 291 markets with its faster LTE service.

So what’s next for Verizon?

Verizon says it has basically finished its initial deployment of 4G LTE, though it still plans to bring its LTE service to a few new markets by the year’s end. The next step after that will probably be working to set up and rollout its faster AWS-based LTE services. The company also plans to continue with its voice over LTE (VoLTE) deployment, though unfortunately the effort has been pushed back to 2014.

The bottom-line is that Verizon previously set priority #1 to getting its LTE service out to as many folks as possible. Now deployment is almost wrapped up, the company is free to focus on speeding up the network and adding other improvements to the mix.

What do you think of Verizon’s LTE network compared to other existing options? Impressed or not?

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7orrDq6ainJGqwam70aKrsmaTpLpwwsSroLOnnmKBqHnLrZxmbWBleq6t0aScratdZ4B3fpFpZg%3D%3D