Verizon's Melone reiterates LTE deployment plans

Verizon Wireless takes its technology deployments very seriously. The carrier has never been known for deploying on a piecemeal, market-by-market basis. So when Verizon Wireless CTO Tony Melone told InformationWeek about its plans to deploy LTE on a widespread basis before making it commercially available to consumers, it was not a big surprise.

In fact, Verizon executive vice president and CTO Dick Lynch told FierceWireless the same thing back in February when we spoke with him before the 2009 Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona [1]. "So when I say launch in 2010, I'm not talking about the end of year but I'm talking about a sizable footprint. I don't want to launch a couple of markets. When we launch we will do what we did with 1xEV-DO and 1XRTT, we will launch a good-size footprint."

In an interview with FierceWireless [2]last week, Melone said that Verizon plans to launch 25 to 30 commercial LTE markets [2] by the end of 2010, and match its current 3G footprint with LTE by the end of 2013. In addition, he said the company will be focusing on two key components: antennas and backhaul.

For more:
- see this InformationWeek article [3]

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[1]Can you hear my LTE call now? Verizon begins 4G rollout [4]
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Verizon may complete LTE buildout by 2014 [7]
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