Verizon is planning to test its Long Term Evolution (LTE) network in Boston and Seattle later this year as a dry run for its big commercial launch in 2010.
Verizon COO Denny Strigl said during a recent conference call with investors that the company planned to commercially launch LTE services in “up to 30 markets” next year that will cover around 100 million people. The Boston Globe reported today that Verizon isn’t willing to publicly elaborate on its LTE trial plans and it hasn’t yet released pricing for LTE services.
Verizon first announced that it was trialing LTE services in two U.S. cities last February.
At the time, the company said LTE would be a data service, initially for laptop users.
The company said at the time that it wouldn’t know what download and upload speeds its networks would offer until they came online. In Verizon’s own trials with its partners at Vodafone, its LTE network reached peak speeds of 60Mbps.
No Canadian carriers have announced launch dates for LTE yet.
Rogers Communications claims it offers the fastest data transfer rates, at 21 Mbps, on a cellular network, with its High Speed Packet Access Plus (HSPA Plus) service in the Toronto area.
