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LTE rollout

D

dm33

Android Enthusiast
How does LTE rollout occur?

Does Verizon install LTE radios all over a city first, then switch them all on at once, or do they switch on LTE one tower at a time as they install them?

Is there ever an announcement when a city goes live? I've seen the list of cities for this year, but can't tell if that means sometime soon or end of the year for all of them.
 
Well I've been following some rollouts online and what I can say conclusively is that many regions are currently in testing, right now verizon has no acknowledged that they have 4G LTE, but they do. Testing consists of a city region being turned on initially for anywhere from 5minute-2hr periods on 1-2 days a week from that I have seen, and after 2-4 weeks these on and off periods seem to end with the 4g being turned on indefinitely, as it has been on over a week nonstop in the Allentown-Easton-Bethlehem area of Pennsylvania scheduled for 4G sometime this year. However verizon has not updated their map for coverage so they are technically still in testing or in the process of recognizing some cities.

As for when the cities will officially go live, some people claim to have sources which state that they will be live at the end of this month or the end of may, so sometime in the next 2-6 weeks expect a number of cities to go on officially and have updated verizon maps. However there does not seem to be any concrete data to support this, so take it with a grain of salt.

Aside from that, verizon's 4G LTE page which I added a link to below, seems to state which cities newly got 4G in their list. For example the Detroit Metro area in Michigan is listed as new in their cities list for cities what currently have 4G LTE.

4G LTE Network | Verizon Wireless

Hope this helps.
 
Here is the spooky thing....
Here in the Columbia SC area my Thunderbolt not 3 minutes ago flipped to 4G.

I was looking right at the thing when it happened and promptly opened a speed test, which maxed at like 10 meg down and was partially done with the upstream test when it appeared to freeze...

Signal bar changed from 4G to nothingness and back to 3G.

Sad panda here... but I guess that means were getting it fairly soon? :D

Edit:
It came back and it's been running for about 10 minutes now.
It's fracking FAST.......

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