Verizon Wireless continued to turn the screws on its competitors with further expansion of its CDMA2000 1x EV-DO network, which the carrier claims now covers 119 million potential customers in more than 50 major metropolitan areas and is available in 33 of the nation’s top 50 markets.
Verizon Wireless added 15 new markets during June as well as expanded coverage in a number of its existing markets and said it was ahead of schedule in covering 150 million potential customers by the end of this year.
“Our expanding EV-DO network is a testament to our commitment to provide business and individual customers superior voice and data networks in the U.S.,” said Denny Strigl, Verizon Wireless president and chief executive officer.
The latest Verizon Wireless enhancements include network expansion in the Houston area with the addition of more than 100 upgraded cell sites; a 30-percent increase in network coverage in the Phoenix area; and the expansion of service in the Las Vegas area, including the availability of service in the southern Nevada towns of Laughlin, Primm and Mesquite.
During the past several weeks, the carrier, which first launched commercial EV-DO capabilities in San Diego and Washington, D.C., in late 2003, has added its EV-DO service in Indianapolis; St. Louis; Seattle; San Antonio; Portland, Ore.; and Richmond, Va.; as well as expanded the reach of its current network in parts of Texas and Atlanta.
Verizon Wireless’ latest expansion comes ahead of a planned EV-DO launch by rival Sprint Corp., which earlier this year said it would begin rolling out its high-speed wireless data service during the second quarter, though as of last week had yet to announce any commercial deployments. Sprint added that it planned to offer EV-DO service in 60 markets and cover 130 million pops by early 2006.
Cingular Wireless L.L.C., which inherited six UMTS markets when it acquired AT&T Wireless Services Inc., said it remained on track with its plans to have between 15 and 20 UMTS/High Speed Downlink Packet Access markets launched by the end of this year. Those markets will include upgrades to the AWS UMTS markets with HSDPA capabilities.
“We are still on track with our original plans to have between 15 and 20 markets with UMTS and HSDPA by the end of the year,” said Cingular spokesman Ritch Blasi.
Blasi noted Cingular plans to have a couple of PC cards, as well as quad-band devices that will be backward compatible with its GSM/GPRS/EDGE network, available when the service launches.
Blasi added that Cingular was not feeling additional pressure to match Verizon Wireless’ EV-DO expansion as Cingular has seen great success with its nationwide EDGE network, and it plans to have UMTS/HSDPA deployed in the nation’s top 100 markets by the end of 2006.
“Wireless data is more than just speed,” Blasi said. “Customers, and especially business customers, put a high priority on coverage and our nationwide EDGE network provides suitable speeds and-more importantly-the right coverage.”
T-Mobile USA Inc. continues to lag behind its competitors in offering wide-area next-generation services, as the carrier is still working on deploying EDGE services. The carrier also has stated it will be at least two years before it has enough spectrum capacity to launch a UMTS-based network.
T-Mobile USA instead has focused its high-speed data plans on extending its HotSpot Wi-Fi footprint, which is available today at more than 9,800 locations across the country and 25,000 locations worldwide.
While Verizon Wireless has not shied away from touting its recent EV-DO network expansion, analysts note the lead could be hollow without customer adoption to back it up.
“I don’t think the other carriers are too concerned about Verizon jumping out to a lead in coverage,” explained Tole Hart, wireless industry analyst for Gartner. “The more important number is how many subscribers they can sign up, and until Verizon Wireless or any of the other carriers announce those numbers, coverage means very little.”
Verizon Wireless’ Strigl noted last week that the carrier had signed up more than 500,000 subscribers to its EV-DO services, which include its business-oriented BroadbandAccess and consumer-targeted Vcast offerings.
Gartner’s Hart said he did not think customers would begin flocking to next-generation services in meaningful numbers until prices drop from current levels of around $80 per month for unlimited access with a PC card.
“I still think carriers will not see broad adoption on the networks until they drop prices to around the $40 to $60 level,” Hart said. “And that won’t likely come until more carriers begin launching service.”
