Verizon today said it will roll out its new 4G wireless network in Charleston, West Virginia before the end of this year, making the municipality one of 38 cities where the nation’s largest carrier plans to deploy the Long Term Evolution network technology before the close of the year.
Verizon will host a press conference today with U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, but the news is more style than substance. So far, the Verizon release is short on details such as when the network will roll out: it may be the first announced but not the first deployed. However, for a rural state the news is still worth noting. For those of you wondering why West Virginia is receiving such an honor, Sen. Rockefeller is the chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Technology, the committee that oversees telecommunications regulations. He has the influence to make Verizon’s life difficult and as the Senator of a heavily rural state, he’s pushed for better broadband access and competition.
Given how fast LTE is (Verizon expects its network to deliver speeds of 5 Mbps to 12 Mbps down) the government is hoping that mobile broadband will expand both broadband availability as well as price competition. Unfortunately for those in power, such hopes are likely to be dashed due to the pricing plans carriers are likely to implement and given the lack of wireless network neutrality provisions.
Verizon Wireless plans to launch LTE in 38 markets and more than 60 commercial airports across the nation, covering more than 110 million Americans. We’ll be hoping to hear more on the rest of the launch cities, as well as the data plan pricing for the new network soon. The first application will be speedy products such as air cards and dongles arriving this year and 4G-enabled handsets coming in 2011.
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