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Verizon Promises 4G Wireless For Rural America
Hugh Pickens writes "A Pew study last year found that only 38 percent of rural American homes have access to broadband Internet, compared to 57 percent in cities and 60 percent in the suburbs. All that could be about to change with the announcement that Verizon plans to start introducing a new wireless network in the 700 MHz spectrum in 2010. 'The licenses we bought in the 700MHz auction cover the whole US,' says Tony Melone, a Verizon Wireless VP. 'And we plan to roll out LTE [high-speed mobile service] throughout the entire country, including places where we don't offer our [current] cell phone service today.' Because the [700 MHz] spectrum is in a lower frequency, it can transmit signals over longer distances and penetrate through obstacles, and because the signals travel longer distances, Verizon can deploy fewer cell towers than if it used spectrum from a higher frequency band, which means it can provide coverage at a lower cost. President Obama's administration is well aware of the high-speed Internet divide that exists today, and as part of the overall economic stimulus package passed by Congress, the government is allocating $7.2 billion for projects that bring broadband Internet access to rural towns and communities."
Verizon did win the bid to get the 700 mhz spectrum but that is not what will elevate them into rural america alone.
Verizon merging with Alltel will be a big factor as Alltel has had a presence in a lot of rural and small city suburbs.
It seems as though everyone's excited about "wireless broadband", but the speedtest app on my iPhone says 416ms ping while I'm on 3G.
Speedtest.net from my PC when it is connected to my Cradlepoint WAP, which in turn is connected to Verizon's 3G EVDO network, shows me 150 ms latency all the time. Xbox360 games, EVE Online, other PC games, they all work great over my 3G service.
Edith Keeler Must Die
From http://mobiledevdesign.com/tutorials/lte_next_step_cellular_3g-1027/
"Network latency will also improve, from as much as 200 ms today to 5 to 10 ms with LTE."
I am stuck with satellite internet (Wildblue) at home, so I am really hoping something good comes of this, esp WRT bandwith caps.
I feel your pain. I was with wild blue and those latency times made my internet use almost useless. I got a sprint mobile on USB and my d/l is typically 1.2mbps but latency is usually around 100 and has never been over 200. Yes its 60 bucks a month but wild blue was 80 so get outta that contract homie.
-- "of course thats just my opinion, I could be wrong." --Dennis Miller
You know I fell for the Cable is much faster then DSL garbage for a long time. On paper, that is true. Now that I have DSL, I can genuinely say it feels much faster. I get consistantly faster torrents and downloads. My VPN is more responsive.
I do miss my "sticky" IP, it changes alot more w/ DSL, but that's easy to work around.
Cheap storage VM.