Editor's Perspective
Flaunting 3G
By Kevin Fitchard
Oct 12, 2004
Verizon Communications CEO Ivan Seidenberg is certainly doing his best to tout Verizon Wireless' 1X EV-DO services. Today at USTA's Telecom'04, Seidenberg reiterated his goal to have 30% of its network outfitted for 3G and even attached a more substantive number to that goal: By the end of the year, Verizon Wireless will have EV-DO deployed in 30 full markets.
Seidenberg didn't elaborate on which markets, aside from the 14 already announced, but he still had plenty of reasons to hype it. Verizon Wireless is the only U.S. carrier with a nationwide 3G deployment plan laid out, and you can bet it will milk that fact for as long as it can. As analyst upon analyst has pointed out, 3G broadband will find its initial home in the enterprise--and if there's no nationwide coverage on the horizon, there's no reason to buy the service. Why buy a broadband service that works in the satellite office in Dallas, if it doesn't work outside of HQ in Manhattan?
But Verizon Wireless probably doesn't have too much longer to be boastful. Just like its original trials in San Diego and Washington, D.C., which forced other carriers to change their deployment models or bring their own 3G networks to market, Verizon Wireless' accelerated nationwide rollout will certainly light a fire under those carriers' rears. Sprint PCS, in particular, has committed to a nationwide rollout, and if its launch of CDMA 1X is any indication, Sprint doesn't buy into the gradual-introduction theory of network deployment. Sprint is more likely to flip a switch, lighting its new DO network up cross-country, than it is to announce a trial. The question is, how much of its network can Verizon Wireless upgrade before that day happens?
Sprint may have made its decision to deploy EV-DO more than a year later than Verizon Wireless, but it's probably ready to roll out services much faster, said Albert Lin, head of research at American Technology Research. Sprint could have full major market coverage nine months behind Verizon if not sooner, giving Verizon very little time to capitalize on its first-mover status, Lin said.
Until then though, expect Seidenberg to make a lot more speeches touting Verizon's newfound data capabilities. Seidenberg's got it. He might as well flaunt it.
E-mail me at kfitchard@primediabusiness.com
AI
