Verizon Wireless expands EV-DO network

Verizon Wireless has increased the number of markets with EV-DO service to 52, turning up networks in 13 new large and mid-sized markets this month and expanding service in some of its existing metro areas.

Speaking at a Yankee Group conference in New York today, Verizon Wireless CEO Denny Strigl said the operator now has a 3G footprint encompassing a population of 75 million and is on target to expand that coverage to half the U.S. population by the end of the year.

“We made history in October 2003 by launching wireless broadband service in Washington, D.C., and San Diego,” Strigl said, referring to Verizon’s original pilot launch, “and we haven’t looked back since.”

Verizon has yet to release any specific numbers on subscribers for either its BroadbandAccess data card service targeted at business users or its V Cast consumer service launched at the beginning of this year. In fact, the carrier has been keeping all its data statistics close to its chest. The only figure it has released is that it has surpassed the 200 million-download mark for its entire Get It Now consumer data platform, which includes every BREW-based ringtone, wallpaper, game, video or application downloaded through both its narrowband and V Cast services.

Strigl said Verizon Wireless invested $5 billion in network build out in 2004, much of which went to the line card and software upgrades necessary to deploy EV-DO. Verizon has succeeded in turning up many of the major metropolitan markets in the U.S. and is now focusing on many of the Tier II markets and Tier III communities outlying metro areas. This month it launched service in Suffolk and Nassau counties in New York’s Long Island; New London, Conn.; Athens, Ga.; Lake Charles, La.; Akron, Ohio; Beaumont, Texas; and Richmond, Va. It also filled in some of the remaining gaps in its metro coverage, adding Seattle, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Cleveland, Portland and San Antonio to its footprint this month.

Perhaps the biggest hole in its EV-DO coverage is San Francisco and the Bay Area, which not only comprises a huge metropolitan region but is also among the most high-tech savvy spots in the world. San Francisco is one of the few markets in the U.S. that has existing 3G service, since AT&T Wireless--now part of Cingular--launched UMTS there last year. But Verizon has already deployed EV-DO in four of the remaining five markets in which Cingular has UMTS service: Phoenix, Seattle, San Diego and Dallas.

While Verizon may not have added San Francisco and Silicon Valley to its 3G footprint it has turned up BroadbandAccess services in the San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose airports, continuing what appears to be a sub-strategy to create a nationwide airport broadband network to compete with Wi-Fi hotspot networks targeted at business travelers. Other metro markets in which Verizon hasn’t deployed EV-DO include Minneapolis, Denver, Detroit and Memphis.