Verizon’s “Long Term Evolution” Network Coming Sunday

Verizon plans to begin rolling out their 4G network to its customers on Sunday, but only those who have USB modems equipped to access the data on their computers. The 4G network won’t be available for smartphones until 2011.

You would assume that 4G, being naturally faster than 3G, would also cost more. At Verizon, apparently to sell customers on this almost unnecessarily fast data speed, the 4G access costs $10 less per month than their 3G access. To gain access to 5 Gigabytes of data at 4G speeds will cost you $50 per month, while access to the same amount of data on the 3G network costs $60 per month. You can also purchase 10 Gigabytes of data on the 4G network for $80 per month.

One wonders how fast 5 Gigs of data will go on a 4G network, and how fast it will run you into overages. Unfortunately, Verizon will charge you $10 for every Gigabyte exceeding your data plan. According to ConnectedPlanet.com, Verizon believes that almost all of their customers will “fit comfortably” within either the 5 Gig or 10 Gig plan. Others might think the data plans are purposefully small to drive overages.

The Verizon 4G network technology is called “Long Term Evolution” and will only be initially released in 38 cities on Sunday. Using the 4G network, as expected, will require a 2-year contract.

Technically, Verizon is not actually providing 4G because it technically does not use the exact technology that defines that type of network. But because the term “4G” is so widely overused, it just feels appropriate. Of course, competitors of Verizon will attack that technicality, even if Verizon’s network becomes the fastest.

Although you can’t use it on your smartphones, it should be interesting to see how this plays out and how well Verizon can live up to the hype they have created. On that note, please enjoy this ultra cheesy Verizon LTE commercial that explains almost nothing about their 4G network, how it works, or how much it costs.

Will you try out the Verizon LTE Network?