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How far outside the "38 cities" will 4G reach?

I'm primarily asking about West Lafayette. I live about 3-4 miles outside of West Lafayette in the city of Lafayette. Does anyone know how far outside the "city limits" the 4G access will reach? If I am able to get 4G speeds, I'll hold off on upgrading until the 4G phones come out. If not, I'll be upgrading at the end of the month. Looking at Sprints 4G coverage maps, the service seems to reach pretty far outside the city limits. I know it is different technology and different companies, but I was just curious how this would progress.

Thanks

Comments

crimedoggies

BurtonSnol3orde wrote:
I'm primarily asking about West Lafayette. I live about 3-4 miles outside of West Lafayette in the city of Lafayette. Does anyone know how far outside the "city limits" the 4G access will reach? If I am able to get 4G speeds, I'll hold off on upgrading until the 4G phones come out. If not, I'll be upgrading at the end of the month. Looking at Sprints 4G coverage maps, the service seems to reach pretty far outside the city limits. I know it is different technology and different companies, but I was just curious how this would progress.

Thanks

Follow this link; http://phones.verizonwireless.com/4g/

go to the map feature, and their is a zip code lookup available. I live outside of Pittsburgh proper by about 25 miles, but my zip is included in the 4G coverage area. Now I just need the phones to show up!!

SuzyQ

crimedoggies wrote:
Follow this link; http://phones.verizonwireless.com/4g/

go to the map feature, and their is a zip code lookup available. I live outside of Pittsburgh proper by about 25 miles, but my zip is included in the 4G coverage area. Now I just need the phones to show up!!

Thanks for this...My NE2 is available in January, 2011. I'm considering a BB, leaning towards the Bold 9650, but all this talk of 4G and LTE has me wondering if I should hold off just a bit. Just because.

But now I see my area isn't covered by the initial rollout, so it could be awhile....I'm thinking I should go ahead and get the Bold now, and wait for my NEXT upgrade, in 2013, when the LTE rollout is expected to be more complete. Ahhh, decisions, decisions...

curtterp

It depends on terrain. While people living in flat area's will be able to access 4g farther away, people living in hilly area's will not be able to access 4g as far.

It also depends if you are in your house or not. You might be able to access 4g outside of your house if you live in a 'fringe' area, but inside the house you might not be able to access 4g.

The zip cod locator is only a guide. It is something that is not set in stone. So it might show you that you will be able to access it from your zip code, depending on atmospheric conditions, terrain, and vegetation in your area will determine if you can actually get a signal.

willzzz88

Shouldn't be a problem. 700MHz propagates MUCH farther with LTE the QAM encoding ensures much higher data rates. All LTE-enabled cell sites by VZW will have fiber backhaul and if there isn't (rural or really rural) there will be sufficient legacy T1 (3-6+) or Microwave on the IP-RAN.

willzzz88

Also to add, with LTE VZW is FINALLY MOVING TO THE GSM 3G/4G PLATFORM enabling global roaming in a few years (down the pipeline) like AT&T currently has.

mc1lean

I live about 20 miles from Charlotte as the crow flys, about 6 miles from a vzw tower and am picking up "4G" with a panel antenna on my roof:

Speed Test #93978110 by dslreports.com
Run: 2010-12-23 16:15:33 EST
Download: 5942 (Kbps)
Upload: 1346 (Kbps)
In kilobytes per second: 725.3 down 164.3 up
Tested by server: 56 java
User: 1504456 @ dslreports.com
User's DNS: myvzw.com
Compared to the average of 84 tests from myvzw.com:
* download is 56% better, upload is 18% worse

whatsupdoc

You are absolutely correct. I live about 1.2 miles directly south of the cell tower with relatively flat terrain that services my area and yep, the signal is very weak outside the house and non-existent inside of it. I opened a trouble ticket and was told that's the way it is :smileysad:

What I would like to know is this: is there someone from local operations in the Akron, Ohio area I can directly talk to about this to see if there's a plan in the works to fix this?

Thanks.

whatsupdoc

What kind of panel antenna would I need to use with the LG 4G USB modem? Would it solve the problem I described above? Thanks.

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