Verizon Wireless, the largest mobile network in the United States, held a briefing earlier in the day, addressed by CEO Nicola Palmer, to let the public know about their current status on and future plans for its 4G LTE network.
As of now, Verizon’s 4G LTE network covers more than 350 markets in the US, touching an impressive 75% of the nation’s population. Today’s announcement indicates that they will easily meet their target of having 400 markets by the end of the year. Verizon 4G LTE is scheduled to go live in over 20 cities on October 18th, which alone will bump up Verizon’s coverage tally to a whopping 417 cities across the US.
It was also announced that VoLTE or Voice over LTE is currently being tested extensively by Verizon, and that they expected to launch the service towards the end of 2013.
For those of you who are wondering what VoLTE technology is, here’s a brief explanation:
VoLTE Â treats voice as data using an internet protocol (IP) multimedia subsystem standard. In short, this means voice communications are managed in the same way your internet data is managed unlike previously where voice communications were managed as a separate signal from your internet data. Basically, this means that both Voice and data would be managed as a single IP Â and single signal, making it spectrally more efficient.
With regards to the future, Palmer said that their 4G LTE network would cover their entire existing 3G footprint by the end of 2013. With VZW making rapid progress on their offerings, looks like 2013 is going to be one helluva year for their customers.
