The real answer for VZW 4G deployment: Fiber and Microwave

[willzzz99]

So based on my latest research online I can say the REAL reason that if you live in a rural area and are waiting for 4G:

If your area has direct access to the US fiber backbone (Any provider, Cable, ILEC, IXC, etc, Regional fiber backbone) your 4G roll-out is simply a dot on the calendar. It's simply waiting for VZW to do the business agreement to buy the fiber capacity they need from the cell site back to their regional switching facilities.

Semi-Rural: If you live in a rural location WITH-IN 50-100 miles of a location that IS SERVED by fiber: VZW will be using high-capacity microwave backhaul in the high-GHz range (25 or 50+ GHz) by using LOS (line of sight) high-capacity microwave where they will use microwave to transmit the fiber-like wireless back to a central location near a city where they will aggregate the traffic onto fiber like the above.

Really-Rural: if you live in a rural location outside of 50-100 miles, VZW has to hire someone (fiber supplier) to trench fiber for them to a location within 50-100 miles of a cell tower.

Really-rural: Your hope for VZW 4G LTE will be a LONG TIME until that fiber aggregation point is trenched.

[lfirwin]

So I wonder how far out it is going to be for us in Western Central Michigan....  Probably forever.  We don't even have DSL here yet (although fingers are crossed, I see orange cable being laid along US 10 headed into my township).

[Ann154]

That might just be fiber optic cable. Orange is the standard underground cable marking for fiber optic cable. If memory serves me correctly, the outer sleeve of interduct that is often used for the cable can be orange.