We’ve been talking a lot about AT&T‘s aggressive 4G LTE roll out lately, but today it’s Verizon‘s turn. The nation’s largest carrier announced today that it has launched 4G LTE service in a whopping 29 markets, bringing the total number of LTE markets up to an absurd 470. At last check, AT&T had just under 200 markets where LTE service was up and running, so Verizon has quite a large lead on the other carriers in the US.
As you can see from the image above, Verizon has 4G LTE up and running in many areas across the country, covering every state in the continental US. The number of 4G LTE markets is dwarfed by Verizon’s 3G coverage area, though there are still a significant amount of locations in the continental US without any 3G or 4G coverage to speak of. In any case, Verizon is definitely hitting the 4G LTE scene hard, recently saying that it should finish its roll out by mid-2013.
Good thing too, because in its announcement today, Verizon pointed to a report from eMarketer that claims the average consumer spends 80 minutes per day using their phone to do things like browse the web, check their social networks, and play games. Obviously, mobile Internet is required for all of that, and in today’s always-on society, the faster those mobile Internet speeds are, the better.
Verizon didn’t name all of these new markets in its announcement, but did says that it has 4G LTE up and running in Selma, AL; Clarksburg, WV; and Port Angeles, WA. Making today even sweeter, the carrier is also expanding 4G LTE service in 36 additional markets, so a large number of people can look forward to faster mobile Internet speeds moving forward. We’ll undoubtedly be talking more about Verizon’s 4G LTE expansion in the coming days and weeks, so keep it tuned here to Android Community for more details.
[via SlashGear]
