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Ohio's smaller city 4G LTE

Hello everyone,

As many of you, you are probably wondering when 4G LTE will hit your area where you can have a strong signal. I’m one of millions waiting 4G LTE. I live in Wyandot County in Ohio, but 4G LTE is nowhere to be found, even our 3G signal is quite a joke, or maybe it is my Droid Incredible.

A few questions for those with vast knowledge of 4G LTE:

1) What is the 4G signal range? We are getting 4G LTE towers built all around us, even the Verizon store employees are getting antsy, it seems. Is it 15 miles? 20 miles? Less? More? I am curious, and an official answer would be nice, since I cannot find it. I don’t want to settle for a crappy signal again going to 1X every so often… EVEN when I am sitting at home and not moving, getting texts or phone calls… So I don’t want to settle for the minimum signal for the 4G LTE.

2) Since 4G LTE towers are getting built all around my county, does that mean I am not going to see 4G LTE until the end of 2013 for the most part? I mean dang… I live in the county seat in Wyandot and the county isn’t going to get covered in the least bit, yet. Depending on the 4G LTE signal range (Granted it doesn’t deteriorate service value at the absolute maximum range…Which I assume it will, given our 3G is semi terrible) it would cover a large Chunk. Does anyone know how they strategize the 4G LTE tower placements?

3) How are towns picked? Dayton and Springfield are close to each other and they are getting two separate towers almost nearly at the same time, same with Cleveland and whichever other place.

4) How many groups are working on towers in Ohio alone? It appears maybe four, seeing the number of towers being built for 4G LTE for this year.

5) When are we going to know when and where more towers are going to be built (Or in queue for being built) ??? Is there any idea when the next batches of towers are going to be built? Are they being started now? Is what is announced for 2011 only what is going to be built despite the other towers being completed and those done with that case doing nothing to the tower exception of “tweaking”?

Thanks for taking the time to answer these questions..!

Comments

mdram4x4

figure it this way

large population density areas will be first

its not by county or state, but by national rank is my guess

the further you are from one, the more time you will be waiting.

Numi

Guess so, I guess I can't upgrade my phone for a while until 4G is on its way. Future proofing now is an extreme waste.

That's only half the battle though, from what I gather. Friend and I went to Cbus (Columbus) and she has a Thunder Bolt and her signal was a joke, even near the heart of Columbus. There was a Verizon store near by, and they were having similar problems too haha.. I guess it goes both ways.

I'm just interested in the finer details about this whole event. 4G signal range before it is considered crap, reasoning behind placements, etc. I personally know they don't want to answer the tower placements straight up, probably because some of the more defensive customers will feel they are "not valued" but for my reasoning, I'd LOVE to know just to expand my knowledge. My family has been with Verizon for yeeeeeeeeears.. I even talked my dad in to getting an iPhone for himself and a Droid for me. We're big on technology, and as other techies, we're just curious when we are able to run to the store and buy the next hot phone for the next hot trend (4G LTE)

mdram4x4

Numi wrote:
Guess so, I guess I can't upgrade my phone for a while until 4G is on its way. Future proofing now is an extreme waste.

That's only half the battle though, from what I gather. Friend and I went to Cbus (Columbus) and she has a Thunder Bolt and her signal was a joke, even near the heart of Columbus. There was a Verizon store near by, and they were having similar problems too haha.. I guess it goes both ways.

I'm just interested in the finer details about this whole event. 4G signal range before it is considered crap, reasoning behind placements, etc. I personally know they don't want to answer the tower placements straight up, probably because some of the more defensive customers will feel they are "not valued" but for my reasoning, I'd LOVE to know just to expand my knowledge. My family has been with Verizon for yeeeeeeeeears.. I even talked my dad in to getting an iPhone for himself and a Droid for me. We're big on technology, and as other techies, we're just curious when we are able to run to the store and buy the next hot phone for the next hot trend (4G LTE)

from my understanding towers are placed to cover as much population, or population movement as possible

in my are all the major carrier have good coverage on the major highways(interstates) get off those corridors and you lose reception, with the acception of verizon.

im sure other places are similar. but thier exception could be att, tmobile, ect.

all the cuctomers are valued. but putting a tower where it covers more people gives a higher ROT (return on investment)

you could also say that when a tower covers less people thier average calue as customers goes up.

whatsupdoc

I do not work for Verizon but having previous experience and involvement on the network side of the business, the 4G product is primarily targeted towards businesses, particularly offices and such as well as densly populated areas. Therefore, expect deployments of 4G to first cover potential business areas, office parks, densly populated areas, etc... This was similarly done when 3G first came out.

This may also mean that 4G service, even if available at a certain tower, may not cover everyone whom the tower can communicate with. A tower typically has several "faces" to it and signal is sent in a particular direction, it isn't sent in a 360 degree radius using one antenna, per se. Most towers with CDMA service are desgined to cover about a 5 mile radius.

So there may be situations whereby the 4G service will only be available to areas where the equipment is placed on particular tower face or faces.

That's the situation I have at my home, 4G was not placed on the face towards my home but was placed on the other two faces and those target business areas.

willzzz99

whatupdoc,

The tower panels problem has been solved long ago by simply putting panels 360 degrees in all directions.

The REAL problem now for VZW 4G LTE deployment is FIBER and the BACKHAUL of the GigE (gigabit ethernet) fiber from their cell site to their switch.

VZW is waiting on fiber suppliers across the country (usually cable companies, ILEC's, IXC's, etc.) to link their cel sites.

A-lot of areas have the equiptment ready and ready to go. Their waiting for the last-mile fiber link being dug/trenched/buried, etc.

EdinTN

I live in a much smaller town (Cleveland/TN) and it has 4G, Chatanooga does not. I don't think the size of the City matters but where the antenas providing 4G coverage are...but again, the 4G here is VERY limited to the City limits...about 10 miles radious out and you are on 3G, what is friggin sad paying for what was promised and have it on a very limited basis.

DionM_VZW

Greetings and thanks to all participating community members! Thanks for brining up this subject. I just wanted to add that our plans for 4G coverage is to make it available in all areas where 3G is offered now by the end of 2012! If you're thinking of upgrading to a device with 4G capability, you needn't wait. All 4G devices are backward compatible with 3G. Therefore, the phone will work in 3G areas now, and will gain in speed as more and more areas welcome 4G coverage.

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