Verizon Wireless rolled out seven new markets today for its high speed BroadbandAccess, an EV-DO data service and their V CAST multi-media service which uses it. In addition, the company announced a new deal where Verizon Wireless customers with any monthly voice plan can get unlimited BroadbandAccess for $59.99 a month, a savings of 25% per month. The catch is you need a two-year contract and Verizon’s cellular phone service.
Dick Lynch, executive vice president and chief technical officer for Verizon Wireless, said: “We made the promise that Verizon Wireless’ broadband network would be widely-available by the end of 2005, and here we are today, fulfilling that promise.
Today, Verizon Wireless announced EV-DO service in Baton Rouge, LA; Charlotte and Raleigh Durham, NC; Denver; Louisville, KY; and San Francisco and Sacramento, CA.
Verizon’s EV-DO service is now available in:
State Market Arizona 1. Phoenix California 2. Los Angeles (includes Burbank and Ontario) 3. Orange County 4. Sacramento* 5. San Diego 6. San Francisco* Colorado 7. Denver* Connecticut 8. Hartford 9. New Haven 10. New London Delaware 11. Wilmington District of Columbia 12. Greater Washington Florida 13. Ft. Lauderdale 14. Jacksonville 15. Miami 16. Orlando 17. Tampa/St. Petersburg 18. West Palm Beach Georgia 19. Athens 20. Atlanta Illinois 21. Chicago Indiana 22. Indianapolis Kansas 23. Kansas City (includes Overland Park) (also in MO) Kentucky 24. Louisville* Louisiana 25. Baton Rouge* 26. Lake Charles 27. New Orleans Maryland 28. Baltimore Massachusetts 29. Boston Michigan 30. Detroit Minnesota 31. Minneapolis Missouri 32. Kansas City (also in KS) 33. St. Louis Nevada 34. Las Vegas New Jersey 35. Newark/Jersey City 36. Trenton New York 37. Long Island (Suffolk and Nassau counties) 38. New York 39. Rochester 40. Syracuse North Carolina 41. Charlotte* 42. Raleigh Durham* Ohio 43. Akron 44. Cincinnati 45. Cleveland 46. Columbus 47. Dayton Oregon 48. Portland Pennsylvania 49. Philadelphia 50. Pittsburgh Rhode Island 51. Providence Tennessee 52. Knoxville Texas 53. Austin 54. Beaumont 55. Dallas 56. Fort Worth 57. Houston 58. San Antonio Virginia 59. Richmond Washington 60. Seattle Wisconsin 61. Madison 62. Milwaukee *New market as of August 29, 2005
While BroadbandAccess, the EV-DO cellular connection for laptops, costs $60-$80/month, the cellphone-oriented services called V CAST costs only $15.00 monthly. But you can’t connect your Verizon cellphone to your laptop for cheap wireless connections. V CAST is a closed garden for cellular users. It includes more than 300 daily updated video clips from leading news, sports, weather and entertainment content providers. Unlimited basic short content is included, but application download fees apply for 3D games, premium video short content, and all other Get It Now applications. There are no airtime charges to download, stream or watch V CAST content.
Verizon is testing Rev A, which may transform the Data Only service into a voice and data service by providing enough upstream bandwidth to support voice over data. Right now it’s Data Only. Lucent’s CDMA2000 1xEV-DO with Revision A will be commercially available in 2006, and claims faster, more flexible cellular networks that can handle both voice and data.
Sprint also made a committment to EV-DO, backing out of it’s public stand for EV-DV (Data & Voice) after it realized that EV-DO revision A would be available sooner and provide integrated voice and data cheaper. Sprint has begun selling EV-DO to laptop users and says they provide services in business districts and airports in 34 U.S. markets.
Sprint calls their EVDO service, Wireless High-Speed Data. Sprint will sell laptop cards from Novatel Wireless and Sierra Wireless. By early 2006, when the national build-out is complete, Sprint expects EV-DO service in approximately 60 metropolitan areas, encompassing more than 200 urban and suburban markets, covering approximately 150 million customers.
Cingular plans to leapfrog both Verizon and Sprint with GSM-based HSPDA. Cingular Wireless, the largest cellular provider in the United States, with about 49 million subscribers, has 3G (UMTS) service in six markets, including Seattle, but is not actively selling the service or devices for it. The networks were originally launched by AT&T Wireless before Cingular acquired the Redmond-based company. Atlanta-based Cingular now plans to upgrade the cities to a faster HSDPA technology, and relaunch it later this year in 15 to 20 other cities.
Related DailyWireless stories include; Qualcomm Buys Flarion, T-Mobile’s HSDPA Move, CDMA vs OFDM, Sprint Rolls Out EV-DO, 3G: HSDPA or Not?, HSDPA Tests, Sprint Commits to EV-DO and Cellular At The Races.
.gif)
