You hear every wireless carrier boasting about having the most, the best, and the fastest coverage in their wireless networks. Every one of them uses different terminology, adds a few different adjectives here and there to ensure that they are not making a false claim, so it is sometimes very hard to figure out exactly who has the most 4G smartphone coverage. Roger Entner is the founder of telecom consulting firm Recon Analytics, and his company uncovered some rather revealing information regarding 4G LTE smartphone coverage in the United States.
The 4 big carriers are of course Verizon Wireless, Sprint, AT&T and T-Mobile. And if you trust the word on the street, it seems that most smartphone shoppers are well educated. Poll after poll shows that when presented with the question, “Who has the most 4G LTE coverage in the US,” smartphone shoppers and owners in the US usually answer Verizon. And in actuality, they do have the largest number of locations in the US with LTE 4G connectivity options as of November 15 last year.
That is when Big Red announced that they were providing 4G LTE coverage in 440 major US markets and cities, well ahead of their intended rate of delivery. They also stated that by mid-2013 their entire initial LTE build would be completed. How does this stack up to Verizon’s 3 main competitors in the US? Well, put rather bluntly, Verizon single-handedly provides twice the 4G LTE smartphone coverage in the United States as their top 3 competitors combined.
AT&T is the 2nd best at providing 4G LTE connectivity, claiming 103 major markets by the end of last year. Sprint’s number of US cities covered by a 4G LTE network is small but rather impressive, since they only began rolling out LTE access in June of 2012. They now provide 4G LTE in 32 cities in the United States, and counting. T-Mobile’s 4G LTE presence is negligible. Of course there are regional carriers who are expanding LTE service, companies like MetroPCS, who was actually the first to offer 4G LTE, and U.S. Cellular.
But the Recon Analytics research also stated that 18 months from now there will probably be very little difference in LTE 4G market coverage in the US, at least among the big four carriers. But for now there is a clear winner, and that is Verizon Wireless. Obviously, being known to have the largest 4G LTE network in the United States is something for Big Red to be proud of. But never forget that human beings are rather predictable creatures. Entner reminded us that his company consistently discovers that roughly 90% of all smartphone users stay in the same areas 90% of the time. So if you have coverage at home and work, that may be all you’ll ever need.
