The Low Down on Verizon’s LTE Network from their 4G Fact Sheet

[JimMariner]

Verizon is gearing up for the launch of their 4G LTE network come November 15th, and while no handsets will be available initially that should quickly change come early 2011. For now the only way to take advantage of the high-speed network will be through MiFi and mobile broadband cards, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t all at least a bit curious about how Verizon is positioning their LTE technology in comparison to Sprint, their biggest 4G rival at the moment, and their WiMAX network.

While we have heard arguments that could go either way in terms of which technology is actually superior, it remains a fact that a large portion of carriers are choosing to go with LTE, leaving Sprint and Clearwire as the only providers of WiMAX coverage. Verizon is boasting that LTE will allow for even greater speeds and reliability, as well as global adaptability, in contrast to WiMAX. As a Verizon subscriber, LTE is the main reason I will forego the numerous holiday launches and wait it out for a real 4G Android beast on Big Red, how about you all?


by Kevin Krause
on October 21st, 2010
Source

[jstafford1]

I'm hoping the Moto superphone(Olympus,terminator,T2) will be the first to launch Android on 4g with Honeycomb!!!!!

Sent from somewhere...

[chaz.ring]

While we have heard arguments that could go either way in terms of which technology is actually superior, it remains a fact that a large portion of carriers are choosing to go with LTE, leaving Sprint and Clearwire as the only providers of WiMAX coverage. Verizon is boasting that LTE will allow for even greater speeds and reliability, as well as global adaptability, in contrast to WiMAX. As a Verizon subscriber, LTE is the main reason I will forego the numerous holiday launches and wait it out for a real 4G Android beast on Big Red, how about you all?


by Kevin Krause
on October 21st, 2010
Source

I'm installing both technologies at the moment..... I'm guessing that LTE is more popular because it is more cost efficient.... the WiMAX equipment and technology is far more expensive than that of the LTE tech.... I'm not saying that the WiMAX is better, or faster, as I have not had the chance to try them both out side by side. But the WiMAX equipment is by far more expensive.

[Quicksilver7714]

I'm installing both technologies at the moment..... I'm guessing that LTE is more popular because it is more cost efficient.... the WiMAX equipment and technology is far more expensive than that of the LTE tech.... I'm not saying that the WiMAX is better, or faster, as I have not had the chance to try them both out side by side. But the WiMAX equipment is by far more expensive.

Interesting. That's nice to know, that might affect my choice to change carriers. I'm currently 2 weeks in to testing/trying out Sprint's network. I have the Evo but not for the 4g as stated in my sig. But this info is nice because Sprint is a smaller company but they're implementing the more expensive technology. So this might affect how long I will have to wait for 4g in my area. If I keep Sprint. I want this phone 'http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-news/75362-gorgeous-mysterious-evo-ish-htc-device-headed-verizon.html?highlight=EVO-ISH+DEVICE'. That would make me happy I can do without 4g.
I also want to put it out there that live in the metro Detroit area which does not have Sprint's 4g and will not be getting Verizon's LTE network either at launch.

Trying out Sprint for a month. Sent from my Evo using Tapatalk. 4G is pointless when you don't live in one of the few available network areas.

[bhall238]

For the U.S. I found this:
Verizon Wireless In Deployment / 25-30 Cities by End 2010 / Nationwide 2013

LteMaps.org | Mapping LTE Deployments and if true, there is no reason for me to wait for a LTE phone since I usually update every year. I wonder if the LTE coverage map (would that be the beginning or the end of 2013?) will look just like the 3G coverage map does now by then. Right now it looks like just a few cities and not a very large land area beyond the city limits.

[New2u]

LTE is more cost effective for what they currently have, WiMAX is more costly but when they upgrade to the next gen WiMAX, they can take advantage of alot of the same equipment because most of it is still the same technology. In the end After LTE is upgraded to it's next counter-part, i would put both prices at about the same in the end. Speeds on the LTE are supposed to be faster then WiMAX just because it's a newer tech, but the speeds aren't a super huge difference, once they are both upgraded again i believe WiMAX has a small advantage over LTE. But then again it all comes down to money, if you save more with LTE, you can afford to put up a few more towers or lease a few more towers, which is better signal for us.

Future development

The IEEE 802.16m [26] standard is the core technology for the proposed WiMAX Release 2, which enables more efficient, faster, and more converged data communications. The IEEE 802.16m standard has been submitted to the ITU for IMT-Advanced standardization.[27] IEEE 802.16m is one of the major candidates for IMT-Advanced technologies by ITU. Among many enhancements, IEEE 802.16m systems can provide four times faster[clarification needed] data speed than the current WiMAX Release 1 based on IEEE 802.16e technology.
WiMAX Release 2 will provide strong backward compatibility with Release 1 solutions. It will allow current WiMAX operators to migrate their Release 1 solutions to Release 2 by upgrading channel cards or software of their systems. Also, the subscribers who use currently available WiMAX devices can communicate with new WiMAX Release 2 systems without difficulty.
It is anticipated that in a practical deployment, using 4X2 MIMO in the urban microcell scenario with only a single 20-MHz TDD channel available system wide, the 802.16m system can support both 120 Mbit/s downlink and 60 Mbit/s uplink per site simultaneously. It is expected that the WiMAX Release 2 will be available commercially in the 2011-2012 timeframe.[28]

[chaz.ring]

WiMAX is more costly but when they upgrade to the next gen WiMAX, they can take advantage of alot of the same equipment because most of it is still the same technology.

hmmmm... I guess as I have not yet seen or installed the "upgraded" equipment yet they could be the same.

But as of right now they are not the same technologies at all.....

Wimax uses mostly microwave tech. via clearwire with sprint together.

LTE uses the same antenna's they always have just retro'd to a low 700mhz band via diplexed signal from the same lines running their 850 and 1900 bands... same antenna's too... Yeah, the topside jumper routing is getting to be a bit tedious...lol

[Quicksilver7714]

hmmmm... I guess as I have not yet seen or installed the "upgraded" equipment yet they could be the same.

Wimax2 has just been shown off in Japan I believe it can stream uncompressed 1080p video, and speeds were stated at
330Mbps. Here is a link to engadget "http://i.engadget.com/2010/10/04/samsung-showing-off-330mbps-wimax-2-mobile-broadband-over-at-cea/"
Trying out Sprint for a month. Sent from my Evo using Tapatalk. 4G is pointless when you don't live in one of the few available network areas.

[richphitzwell]

Any word on what the potential phones will be? I have to assume they will all be backwards compatible with 3g and lower as well. Im telling one of my clients unless he needs a smartphone now, wait until next year for the 4g phones as we are slated to be 4g live mid next year.

[kodiak799]

Yep, this is the most anticipated tech for me to date....Well, maybe plasma tv's.

I think I've seen May on the handsets, but I'm really hoping it will be sooner. That's still over 6 months away! Pretty much forever in the smartphone world these days.