Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ) said its LTE technical trials have ended, and it is now moving into the friendly-user-trial phase in unnamed five cities.
Verizon had been testing LTE in Boston and Seattle. The Boston trials have shown data speeds of between 5 and 12 Mbps for downlink speeds and 2 to 5 Mbps for the uplink speeds.
The operator's goal is to roll out 25 to 30 LTE markets by the end of 2010, and the company said it is still on track to meet that deadline.
In related news, Verizon is putting the final touches on new data price plans to coincide with the upcoming launch of its LTE network. And those plans will likely eliminate any unlimited data offering in favor of a tiered data pricing model, according to Verizon Communications CFO John Killian. In addition, the company estimates that its smartphone users typically use between 600 MB and 800 MB of data per month, which is similar to what AT&T has reported for average iPhone data usage.
For more:
- see this ZDNet article
- read this FierceWireless article
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