Causes aside, it is clear that in a competitive environment, speed is easy for operators to communicate and for users to understand. As such, T-Mobile’s somewhat cheeky marketing ploy should not be underestimated as to the end user, the performance looks inviting.
Verizon’s key network differentiator will be its coverage advantage, which comes as a result of using lower frequency spectrum. At launch, Verizon’s LTE services will reach 38 cities and 60 airports, covering 110 million people. This is less than T-Mobile, which promises to cover 200 million people in 100 metropolitan areas by the end of 2010.
However, Verizon has an aggressive deployment plan to cover its entire 3G footprint by the end of 2013. However, it must move quickly and meet this deadline or it will risk others soaking up demand.
Verizon’s LTE launch is the first large-scale commercial LTE launch in the world. We believe that the last two years must have been challenging for Verizon’s LTE vendors, given the relative immaturity of the technology and Verizon’s ambitious rollout plan. The selected vendors will have learned a lot from this work and will have been able to optimize their solutions by fixing the issues that emerged during implementation.
We believe that Verizon’s LTE RAN suppliers, Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent, will have benefited most. Due to the scale of Verizon’s network coverage, both Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent can proclaim themselves as the largest suppliers, by volume, of active LTE base transceiver stations.
The rollout of Verizon’s LTE network is especially important for Alcatel-Lucent as without this deal (and the one with AT&T) the outlook for the company’s global LTE strategy would have been dire.