Verizon offers more details on LTE rollout

Verizon Wireless offered a more specific timetable for its planned Long Term Evolution network buildout and said it will impose higher performance standards for its LTE devices.

Verizon said it will commercially launch 20 to 30 markets in the second half of 2010. Previously, the carrier only said it would launch the markets sometime in 2010.

During a conference call about LTE device specifications for developers, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam said the carrier would have "nationwide buildout complete in late 2013 to early 2014," according to PC Magazine, which closely matches what other Verizon officials have said about the launch schedule. Verizon will turn on one "pre-commercial" LTE market on the East Coast and one on the West Coast during 2009, McAdam said. 

While Verizon is following technical specifications laid out by the standards bodies, the operator said it is setting higher performance requirements when it comes to transmit output power and receive sensitivity, which should give devices greater range and an enhanced ability to avoid interference. The move is no different than what Verizon has done on the CDMA side.

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