Verizon 4G Roll Out 'Substantially Complete' at 500 U.S. Markets; Turns Attention to LTE-Advanced

Verizon Wireless announced Thursday its 4G-LTE roll-out is “substantially complete,” according to The Los Angeles Times. The mobile service carrier is now providing 4G LTE to 500 markets in the United States.

While the New Jersey-based company provides the most 4G LTE coverage in the country, it has had difficulties keeping up with the 4G LTE speed of competitor AT&T—a mobile carrier with an LTE service that’s much newer which means less traffic.

Verizon has started testing video and audio calling on the larger network.

The company has interesting network functions in certain areas of the U.S.. For example in Alaska, Verizon doesn’t have a 3G network—but it has a 4G network. Verizon users can surf the web on the 4G network but have to use towers provided by other companies if they want to make a call.

Verizon plans to take 3G signals and change them to 4G in an effort to combat the amount of congestion on their network. This plan could take place as soon as 2014.

The company also wants to add more space by using 4G in the Advanced Wireless Spectrum it acquired in 2012. Next, the mobile carrier will be able to use the abilities that come with LTE Advanced technology which increase the amount of data it can give to customers in crowded urban communities.

“Now that we're done with our initial LTE build, we are looking to the Advanced Wireless spectrum to add depth and longevity to our network,” said the chief technology officer for Verizon, Nicola Palmer.

The three other major carrier—T-Mobile, Sprint and AT&T—have also promised to use LTE Advanced features, putting them right behind Verizon.

Currently, T-Mobile has seven LTE markets, Sprint has 110 and AT&T has 315.

Samsung recently launched and LTE-A phone in the form of the Samsung Galaxy S4 LTE-Advanced. However, it is only available in South Korea—the only place in the world with a true 4G LTE-Advanced network.