VZW LTE in 2010: “Looking better and better each day…”

How about some self horn tooting to round out the night, eh? Tonight’s grand display of self love is brought to you by Verizon Wireless. Mind you, their back patting session is could actually be warranted. With AT&T’s less than stellar year, Verizon has been boasting of not only being better coverage wise for 3G, but also being lightyears ahead of the competition when it comes to 4G. Specifically, Verizon claimed that by the end of 2010, 25-30 markets would be fully blanketed with 4G. By 2013: look for the entire 3G footprint to be converted to 4G. Will they deliver?

According to VZW’s CTO, Tony Melone, the 2010 4G goals are “looking better and better each day, not worse”. Well, someone sure is confident aren’t they? Cutting through the PR fluff, VZW does have a robust and massive 3G footprint, so the talk we’re hearing from them now concerning their next gen network is pretty plausible.

If something in the form of a “con” must be taken away from all of this, it’s the simple fact that these early 25-30 4G markets won’t see any form of 4G voice — it’s all data baby. Verizon is up front about it, saying that they’re unsure at the moment if the 4G network will be able to handle both data and voice. Kudos to VZW for not sugarcoating/lying about network capacity. Personally, I never actually “talk” on the phone. Text/email/IM is really the best/only way to get a hold of me. Many people are not like me however and live by the spoken word. Fair enough. Yak it up all you want. Just know that for the foreseeable future, voice traffic on VZW is strictly 3G.

That’s ok though, more 4G goodness for what really matters — data.

Engadget

Verizon’s latest response to AT&T lawsuit claims: Stuff it. You suck.

Anyone thinking that either AT&T or Verizon were going to roll over and let the other walk all over them in the courtroom has another thing coming. Neither side is backing down anytime soon as both have come forward with fightin’ words. We all know that AT&T’s latest claims has them bragging how “awesome” their EDGE network is when the “rare” extremely common occurrence of 3G-less AT&T coverage presents itself. Verizon on the other hand comes out swinging pretty hard saying:

AT&T did not file this lawsuit because Verizon’s “There’s A Map For That” advertisements are untrue; AT&T sued because Verizon’s ads are true and the truth hurts.

The truth hurts AT&T. But it doesn’t stop there. No sir. VZW goes on to further chastise AT&T’s legal department and clear signs of lacking common sense…

In the final analysis, AT&T seeks emergency relief because Verizon’s side-by-side, apples-to-apples comparison of its own 3G coverage with AT&T’s confirms what the marketplace has been saying for months: AT&T failed to invest adequately in the necessary infrastructure to expand its 3G coverage to support its growth in smartphone business, and the usefulness of its service to smartphone users has suffered accordingly.

So in the end we have AT&T crying over their own failures being pointed out by some other entity and VZW pretty much saying “Stop your bitching!”

What do you say?

Engadget

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