AT&T, Verizon meet 2011 LTE goals

There seems to be no end to 2011 LTE turn-ups for the nation’s two biggest mobile operators: Verizon, which sports the largest LTE footprint, seems to be expanding it almost week by week; and AT&T, which wasn’t expected to make a bit LTE splash at all this year but nonetheless this week reached its own, albeit smaller, LTE deployment target as well.

Verizon today said it plans to roll out LTE network to an additional 14 markets and expand coverage in four other cities this week – expanding its coverage to 179 markets total. Verizon reached its 2011 LTE roll-out goals earlier this fall (CP: 2011 LTE goal reached, Verizon continues expansion) but shows no signs of stopping.

VZW’s latest new deployments: Little Rock, Ark., Savannah, Ga., Cedar Rapids and Des Moines, Iowa, Lexington, Ky., Starkville, Miss., Kansas City and Springfield/Branson, Mo., Lincoln, Neb., Orange County, N.Y., Greater Providence, R.I., Rapid City, S.D., Roanoke, Va., and Appleton/Oshkosh, Wis. Meanwhile, existing LTE service will be expanded in Pittsburgh, Louisville, Ky., Grand Rapids, Mich., and Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minn. (Briefing Room: The Nation’s Largest 4G LTE Network Comes to 14 New Markets and Expands in Four Markets on Nov. 17).

Not to be outdone, AT&T made some LTE coverage announcements of its own this week. The carrier said will turn on LTE service in six new cities on Nov. 20, including: Indianapolis; Las Vegas; Oklahoma City; Charlotte, N.C.; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Kansas City, Mo. and Kansas City, Kan., which are being counted as one market. That brings its roll-out to a total of 15 markets, covering 70 million users, meeting its goals for 2011.

Beyond new LTE roll-outs, AT&T is also upgrading its existing networks to HSPA+, which can reach speeds (about 4 MB/s) that can match the lower band of the bandwidth range that rival Verizon is offering via LTE (5 Mb/s to 12 MB/s) (CP: AT&T pits its 4G LTE against Verizon’s with first smartphone).

The two carrier’s LTE efforts is providing a big boost to spending across the industry, as the networks hardly stop at the radio network but bring with them major upgrades ranging from mobile backhaul to supporting IMS, policy and billing elements.

In fact, Infonetics this week specifically pointed to AT&T’s 4G acceleration as one of a few prime drivers behind relatively strong capex spending growth in 2011.

As part of its Service Provider Capex, Opex, ARPU and Subscribers report, released this week Infonetics said it expected an increase in global telecom CapEx of 6% to $311 billion in 2011 versus 2010, with global industry revenue increasing 8% to $1.86 trillion.

Infonetics principal analyst Stéphane Téral cited several key activities as driving the spending growth, including AT&T’s acceleration of its 4G spend here in the U.S. (including ramped up LTE plans, HSPA+ upgrades and WiFi hot spot deployments).