VZW nears Rev. A rollout completion

Verizon Wireless has the Revision A upgrade to its EV-DO networks completed in markets covering more than 135 million people, bringing it close to having the low-latency high-capacity uplink technology installed throughout its entire 3G footprint, VZW chief technology officer and executive vice president Dick Lynch said today.

Verizon Wireless has EV-DO high-speed networks rolled out in 200 million pop footprint, covering 242 metropolitan areas andtwo-thirds of the U.S. population. And though 135 million was the official number of people covered with Rev. A as of March 1, Lynch said several more markets have since been covered with the upgrade, bringing Verizon Wireless within spitting distance of 100% completion. While the final EV-DO radio upgrade is expected to be completed this year--allowing Verizon Wireless to expand its EV-DO and Revision A networks simultaneously in the future--Lynch refrained from naming a specific date or month.

“We’re just not making a big deal about it,” Lynch said. “Until we’re Rev. A everywhere, I don’t feel we want to go out and tell people you can use Rev. A only in this, this and this market.”

Rev. A adds additional downstream capacity to EV-DO’s already significant broadband link, but its main advantages lie in the uplink. Rev. A supports uplink speeds of 500 kb/s to 800 kb/s making it the first commercially deployed synchronous broadband cellular technology. Rev. A also supports much lower latency than its predecessor and is the first CDMA technology to have QoS built in, making it possible for the network to support real-time communication applications such as VoIP and video conferencing.