Comments on: Small carriers are launching LTE, but will they ever see a 4G iPhone?

By: nanish

nanish — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 07:46:41 +0000

why do you think cspire is taking this big step..are they going to have a regional advantage…?.since cspire already is sellng out iphone 4s i believe apple will sell the new LTE handset to them too…60million at stake…is it worth the risk?

By: Glenn Gore

Glenn Gore — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 11:36:01 +0000

These systems are in areas where Verizon has never built, not do they plan to ever, build a system. For any reason, be it population density, not fitting into their system-wide plans, whatever. The customers are the ones who benefit, no matter which of the partner carriers they choose, forthey might never have LTE service available if it were not for this partnership. These same customers have demand for the iPhone as well as the other hot current LTE phones, but exclusivity gets in the way.

By: guy

guy — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 19:24:49 +0000

Glenn, it’s not a problem for Verizon, it’s a problem for the smaller carriers. All Verizon did was offer to lend their licenses out to these smaller carriers, have them build the networks and then they share them. These deals benefits Verizon MUCH more than it does the rural carrier who sign on. But as the article pointed out, economies of scale are forcing them to do deal with the devil.

By: Glenn Gore

Glenn Gore — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 12:18:03 +0000

Verizon is getting around this problem with their LTE in Rural America program, wherein the regional carrier uses Verizon’s licenses to build an LTE system. A benefit to users of this system is that Verizon customers can roam on the regional system as well as the regional system’s customers will have access to Verizon’s national LTE network, so theoretically, an LTE iPhone could be sold by the regional carrier since both networks are the same. I don’t know if Apple will allow these regional carriers to sell an LTE iPhone or not but we will see. One of the regional carriers signed up for Verizon’s program, Pioneer Cellular of Oklahoma and Kansas, is set to turn on their LTE system sometime this year, so we will see what happens.