No LTE in Austin, TX for 2011? Really VZW?

[bugg77]

So VZW turns on LTE in Dallas/Ft. Worth, San Antonio and Houston in 2010, then they follow that in 2011 with Temple, Kileen, Bryan/College Station, Port Arthur, and Beaumont... seriously? Austin doesn't even make the cut for 2011?

Austin is 80 miles from San Antonio and 70 from Temple/Kileen so I know the coverage won't reach us from those two places. I just don't get the logic behind ignoring the State Capitol and one of the largest colleges in the country. Especially in favor of a bunch of small towns with no real population to provide a customer base to pay for the new LTE equipment.



/rant

 

[anon(19758)]

Makes great sense to activate the smaller towns first, actually. Do the truly huge cities (LA, NYC, etc.) first, to get the word out even though there are few devices that support it. Then smaller towns and cities, to slowly build your network and gradually increase the load. Finally, the population centers, college towns, etc. Those will be the biggest load, but by now you've worked most of the links out of your network.

I had the same reaction when I found out Rochester, NY was being activated before my home market of Albany, also the state capital. Then someone pointed this theory out to me, and it does make a fair bit of sense.

Sent via Tapatalk

 

[bugg77]

Makes great sense to activate the smaller towns first, actually. Do the truly huge cities (LA, NYC, etc.) first, to get the word out even though there are few devices that support it. Then smaller towns and cities, to slowly build your network and gradually increase the load. Finally, the population centers, college towns, etc. Those will be the biggest load, but by now you've worked most of the links out of your network.

I had the same reaction when I found out Rochester, NY was being activated before my home market of Albany, also the state capital. Then someone pointed this theory out to me, and it does make a fair bit of sense.

Sent via Tapatalk

Not a bad theory, but one thing to consider is Return On Investment. VZW wants LTE to start paying for itself as quickly as possible and the only way to do that ramp up the customer base as quickly as possible. Aside from that, if you're already hitting the 25 largest cities, then why not go all the way to the 35th (Austin metro is 35th largest) or 50th? It will take years before those smaller metro areas will pay for the LTE equipment and they'll already be working out the kinks in those huge markets anyway.

Here's the email I just sent to VZW:

I don't understand how VZW can plan to expand their 4G LTE coverage in Texas in 2011 and leave out the Austin Metropolitan Area. Can someone tell me when Austin will make the list for LTE coverage? The Austin Metro area has 1.7M people and a large base of technology users (potential customers). But instead of activating LTE in Austin in 2011, VZW is going to turn on LTE coverage in Temple/Killeen (400K people), Bryan/College Station (215K people), and Beaumont/Port Arthur (380K people). I just don't understand how VZW can overlook the 35th largest metropolitan area in the US, the state capitol of the 2nd most populated state in the US, and home of the fifth largest university in the US. I doubt I'll get any serious response, but I'd love to know why those other small areas were chosen over Austin and when Austin can expect to see 4G LTE.

Thank you for your time.

 

[ethannation]

Just wanted to add some fuel to this fire. The very day I move from Fresno, CA, to Austin, TX, I get a text from Verizon that 4G is finally available on my Thunderbolt. Ridiculous...

Austin is so tech-forward, that many people are eschewing traditional media and going straight to web only offering like TWiT, Netflix, and Hulu. It doesn't even come close to making sense that Verizon would leave the Austin Metro Area off of it's 4G roadmap for 2011... that is, unless you consider the fiber in the ground...

To my knowledge, there is NO Verizon high speed (10Gbase) backhaul in Austin. Level3 and AT&T own most of the pipes (someone correct me if they know better).

Perhaps Verizon has been loathe to partner with their mortal enemy AT&T for backhaul services, or perhaps Level3 has been too expensive? I don't know... but I do know this - Verizon better get their pipes in order before my next purchase cycle comes up next year...

 

[KiboeTheDog]

I just don't get the logic behind ignoring the State Capitol and one of the largest colleges in the country. Especially in favor of a bunch of small towns with no real population to provide a customer base to pay for the new LTE equipment.



/rant

not to mention the F1 track
(have they even made any progress on the track, yet?)

but, it's all planning, here they started in omaha, turning it on in lincoln in december, then working down the I-80 corrodor, at this rate my town will have 4g by.....january. Verizon is activating in certian areas first to get warmed up, as we all know 4g will become the standard eventually, i mean, people were still on 2g in 2004, and some markets still are!. (really rual under 1000 population towns)

 

[phantomog]

Yesterday morning around 9am or so I was filling up at a gas station at Brodie and William Cannon. Those in Austin know this is pretty far from the airport and definitely not the the 4G extended area here in Austin.

Much to my surprise, I looked at my phone and saw the 4G LTE icon! I checked my wife's TB as well and it was on hers as well. Unfortunately we were heading to an appointment and I didn't have time to do any speedtests or track to see when/where it turned off.

I hope this is a good sign for Austin. I agree that it is completely stupid that Verizon has made no plans for Austin yet.

 

[One Radical Dude]

It looks like the Austin area will be part of the Sept. 15 launch, even though Austin was excluded in the 2011 list from earlier this year.

 

[jono119]

when i was in austin last month i could barely even get a bar with 3g signal on my DCharge. i hope they fix this soon!

 

[bugg77]

It looks like the Austin area will be part of the Sept. 15 launch, even though Austin was excluded in the 2011 list from earlier this year.

You may be right... It looks like 4G is active in Austin right now. I'm in Pflugerville (north of Austin) and have a strong 4G signal.

I'll keep an eye out for VZWs announcement, but it looks like it's already live.