Verizon now has seven rural LTE partners, vindicating McAdams’ vision

When Verizon Wireless launched its rural LTE program early last year, the company’s then-CEO Lowell McAdam appeared to be closely involved in the program, potentially putting his own reputation on the line depending on the program’s success (CP: Behind Verizon Wireless’ rural buildout plan). McAdam has since moved into the Verizon COO position, where he is being groomed to replace Ivan Seidenberg as CEO of all of Verizon (CP: VZW’s McAdam being groomed to succeed CEO Seidenberg) and where he undoubtedly has larger fish to fry than the rural LTE program.

McAdam’s vision for the rural LTE program seems to be holding up to market realities. The latest company to join the Verizon Wireless LTE in Rural America program is S and R Communications, a joint venture of two rural Indiana wireline telcos.

That brings the total number of participants in the program to seven. That’s a respectable attainment in the five months since the first program participant was announced (CP: Verizon partnership will help Bluegrass Cellular get to market sooner), especially considering that Verizon is only seeking partners in areas where it does not have its own 3G infrastructure.

When Verizon originally announced the rural wireless program, the company said that rural operators could build the LTE network in their area using Verizon’s spectrum or could wait for Verizon to build the network and lease service from Verizon. But according to a release that Verizon issued in February, all six of the carriers in the program at that time, like S and R, have opted to lease spectrum from Verizon, which enables them to build their own networks and get to market quickly.

Perhaps because Verizon plans to build out areas where it already has 3G infrastructure first, there is no particular urgency for rural carriers to sign up for the option of selling service over a network built by Verizon, but that option may gain in popular as Verizon’s LTE network begins to reach rural America.

In the meantime, new options for rural carriers wanting to deploy 4G are beginning to appear. A startup called NetAmerica aims to bring economies of scale to rural carriers deploying 4G by enabling them to act as a consolidated group (CP: NetAmerica and Ericsson ink deal to supply rural 4G deployment). And equipment offerings tailored to the needs of the rural market, such as products from wireless developer RunCom (CP: Local Loop and Runcom partner on rural 4G deployment solution), also have hit the market.