Verizon's fast 4G wireless coming to 39 cities to start

By PETER SVENSSON  AP Technology Writer

NEW YORK  -- Verizon Wireless said Wednesday that its new wireless broadband network, which offers higher data speeds initially for laptop users, will be live before the end of the year in the cities on the Boston-to-Washington stretch as well as in California, Chicago, Miami, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Seattle and other areas.

In all, Verizon aims to cover 39 cities and a third of the country's population with its so-called fourth generation, or 4G, network before the end of the year. In addition, it's lighting up more than 60 airports.

Verizon had previously said that it aimed to cover 25 to 30 cities by the end of the year, without identifying them.

The target market for the 4G service is initially business users who need Internet connections on the go. Verizon says phones and tablet computers that can take advantage of the higher speeds will come next year.

In an interview at the CTIA wireless technology trade show in San Francisco, Verizon Wireless' chief technology officer, Tony Melone, said the move to the new network from Verizon's current 3G, or third-generation, network will be like building a highway with many lanes next to one with two lanes.

"The more capacity we give (people), the higher the speeds, the lower the latency, the more things that they do in a wired environment they can do in an unwired environment," he said.

Sprint Nextel Corp. already has a 4G network run by its Clearwire Corp. subsidiary, but it uses technology that's incompatible with Verizon's. Verizon, on the other hand, is using LTE, or Long-Term Evolution, a technology that's set to be adopted widely in the industry. AT&T Inc. and T-Mobile USA have a greater ability to upgrade speeds on their current networks and are waiting for LTE to mature before introducing it.

Verizon, the country's largest wireless carrier, was beaten to the LTE punch by MetroPCS Communications Inc., the fifth-largest carrier. Last month, MetroPCS launched LTE coverage in Las Vegas. It plans to add a few more cities before the end of the year. MetroPCS is adopting LTE not so much because of the higher data speeds but because the technology helps lower operating costs.

Also Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple Inc. is set to start producing a version of the iPhone that could be used on Verizon's current 3G network. However, Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam repeated the company's line that it does not expect to sell a 3G iPhone but would like to do so for its 4G network. A 4G iPhone is probably at least a year away, both because the network is still being built and because of technical challenges on the phone side.

Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications Inc. of New York and Vodafone Group PLC of Britain.

Verizon Wireless 4G LTE Initial Major Metropolitan Area Deployment
Akron, Ohio
Athens, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Baltimore, Maryland
Boston, Massachusetts
Charlotte, North Carolina
Chicago, Illinois
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cleveland, Ohio
Columbus, Ohio
Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, Dallas, 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
West Palm Beach, Florida

Verizon Wireless 4G LTE Initial Commercial Airport Deployment (Airport Name, City, State)
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