Verizon Wireless launches 1xEVDO services

Verizon Wireless today announced it would turn on its 1xEV Data Only wireless broadband network in Washington, DC, and San Diego Oct. 1, offering high-speed wireless access targeted at enterprise customers.

Using Nortel Networks’ infrastructure in San Diego and Lucent Technologies’ equipment in the nation’s capital, Verizon Wireless will offer wide area coverage extending far into the metro areas of both cities and speeds from 300 kb/s to 500 kb/s. Called BroadbandAccess, the service will run at a flat rate of $79.99 per month for unlimited access, plus the cost of a Sierra Wireless 1xEV-DO wireless card.

Though the service is available to all customers in the two metro markets, Verizon Wireless obviously intends to target enterprises with the high-speed data service. Fitted with the carrier’s VZOffice suite, the service is intended to integrate with corporate virtual private networks, in effect extending a company’s wireless LAN to an entire metropolitan area. Verizon officials said its EV-DO technology is designed to work with any businesses existing IT infrastructure and security applications.

“Certainly [the enterprise] is the first market we have in mind for this service,” a Verizon Wireless spokesman said. “But we think there’s a lot of potential for the small office professional to use this service. There are people who make the commute from D.C. to Baltimore on a regular basis that spend the entire train ride online. A service like this would be ideal for them.”

BroadbandAccess will be backwards compatible with Verizon Wireless’s CDMA 1x networks, handing-off DO connections to slower 1x connections when a customer leaves the coverage area. While Verizon Wireless is investigating expansion into other markets, it has made no firm decision about when or if it will take DO beyond Washington and San Diego.

“We’ll be watching our customers very closely,” the spokesman said. “We think this type of network will have the greatest benefit spread over multiple markets, but we haven’t announced any plans to go beyond the two initial markets yet.”

The nation’s other major CDMA carrier, Sprint PCS, launched a trial EV-DO network in Boise, Idaho, last year but has shied away from the technology, claiming it would wait for the more robust 2nd generation technology 1xEV-DV (data and voice) to emerge in 2005. Monet Networks last year launched commercial DO services in Duluth, Minn., but has not followed up its initial launch with any new markets.

Verizon Wireless began trials with the Lucent and Nortel equipment last year, and in the first half of 2003 expanded the trial coverage areas in both markets. Verizon Wireless officials said they were satisfied with both vendors' equipment and had no plans to select one vendor over the other for future deployments. “We never like to limit ourselves to a single supplier,” the spokesman said. “We’ve built our network with multiple suppliers in mind.”