In 2014, Palmer added, Verizon will start building a much broader footprint in the new band. What’s more, Palmer said that Verizon would start selling its first AWS compatible devices in the next few months.

“You can’t have the network without compatible devices,” Palmer told Fierce’s Sue Marek. “We have already given the OEMs guidance on that strategy. The first half of this year we will see AWS-compatible devices in our lineup so when the network comes online in the second half, we will take advantage of that.”

There are some major implications in Verizon’s move:

• Verizon is now ready to start focusing on capacity instead of coverage. Palmer said Verizon’s 700 MHz LTE network will cover 90 percent of the U.S. population this year, meaning there will be few populated places where Verizon customers can’t get a 4G signal. It has enough AWS spectrum to double its LTE capacity nationwide, and almost everywhere east of the Mississippi it can triple it. That means it will be able to support more 4G subscribers and more 4G devices and eventually it will be able to boost 4G speeds.
• The AWS band uses 1700 MHz and 2100 MHz frequencies, which make it an ideal spectrum for urban deployments. The lower the frequency, the further radio waves propagate, so while 700 MHz was perfect for Verizon’s coverage network, you can expect Verizon to be more selective about where it builds the second network. It will likely target cities and other high-traffic areas and it may even USE AWS for its first indoor and outdoor small cells.
• By moving to AWS, Verizon will actually have a 4G band in common with other North American carriers. T-Mobile’ and the Canadian operator use the band. AT&T owns AWS licenses as well and is already sells devices that support those frequencies (the iPhone 5 is one of them). Network fragmentation has been a huge problem in the U.S., requiring handset vendors to make different variants of their devices for different carriers. With the operators coalescing around AWS, we could get a step closer to a smartphones that work across all carriers’ networks.

Other operators have plans to launch LTE over a second band as well: AT&T will make use of its newly minted 4G band in the 2.3 GHz frequencies, while Sprint will refarm the 800 MHz airwaves currently occupied by its Nextel network for LTE. Both operators are still at least a year away from making those plans reality.

By putting LTE into a second band, Verizon could also become the first U.S. operator to start down the path toward the next-generation of mobile technology called LTE-Advanced. The first LTE-Advanced technique we’re likely to see is called carrier aggregation, which bonds two disparate spectrum bands together to create a single super-fast air link. Verizon could choose to merge its two LTE networks, effectively doubling the uplink and downlink speeds available to its customers.

Several U.S. operators — from Sprint and T-Mobile to Clearwire and Dish Network — have talked a big game about LTE-Advanced, abusing the term to make their networks seem more sophisticated than they are. Ironically, Verizon has never made any boasts about LTE-Advanced, but it might well be the first U.S. operator that commercially implements the first LTE-Advanced technique.

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It took some time, but this transaction was destined to happen due to the present state of AT&T’s LTE network. The new 4G network AT&T has launched nationally in most cases utilizes 20 MHz of spectrum, making it a megahertz-for-megahertz Verizon match. But in a several key markets like Chicago, Los Angeles and Miami, AT&T had only has licenses adding up to 10 MHz, and has been forced to deploy half-capacity networks in those cities.

So it should come as no surprise that cities topping the sales receipt are Chicago, LA and all of the other markets where AT&T doesn’t have a full complement of 4G airwaves. AT&T will now be able to normalize its LTE bandwidth in all of the country’s major cities before it even has to start thinking about its next stage LTE deployment. Speaking of which, AT&T just closed its purchase of NextWave’s Wireless Communications Service (WCS) airwaves this week, which will give it the frequencies to deploy an entirely new LTE network in the 2.3 GHz band.

Verizon not only comes out of this with almost $2 billion, but it gets some key licenses in the Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) band, which is where Verizon plans to deploy phase 2 of its own LTE network (the current 4G rollout is in the upper 700 MHz). Specifically it’s getting 10 MHz spectrum in Los Angeles; Phoenix; Fresno, Calif.; and Portland, Ore.

Verizon also announced it is selling 700 MHz licenses to private equity firm Grain Management for $189 million in the North Carolina markets of Charlotte, Greensboro and Raleigh-Durham. It will also lease an AWS license from Grain in Dallas.

While today’s deals were obviously blockbuster sales, Verizon has now closed 35 of them with companies across the company. Back in April, Verizon promised regulators it would sell off its lower 700 MHz holdings in order to coax the FCC and Department of Justice into approving its massive cable spectrum buy. As of today, Verizon said in its policy blog, that sale process is now over.

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Verizon has announced to two spectrum sales, each for a single rural license: Panhandle Telecommunications will get a 10 MHz chunk covering 12 northwest Texas counties while fellow Texas provider Nortex Communications will take possession of a 12 MHz block in four counties north of Dallas. Prior to the FCC deal Verizon said it has had cut deals with seven more operators covering 24 licenses in the pipe, and it said it is evaluating multiple additional bids, though there’s no word whether these deals are for more rural licenses or for Verizon’s metro market airwaves.

Verizon is selling some very attractive 700 MHz frequencies in some of the country’s biggest markets. Verizon has already traded away one of valuable Chicago licenses to Leap Wireless, but it has another spare 12 MHz in the Windy City for sale, as well as significant holdings in big cities from Los Angeles in New York.

The wild card in all of this is AT&T. It’s the only operator of the big four that uses the lower 700 MHz for LTE, and it could find Verizon’s B-block licenses very useful for filling out its nationwide 4G footprint.

Image courtesy of Flickr user turtlemom4bacon.

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From the blog post:

“While we have not yet seen the final Order, we anticipate that the service rules adopted today will permit deployment of LTE technologies in the WCS band while ensuring that satellite radio services are protected from unreasonable interference.  AT&T took real risks to develop this under-utilized band and is committed to devoting the resources necessary to unlock its full potential.  We expect to commence deployment of LTE infrastructure in the band in as early as three years, allowing us to enhance our wireless broadband services.  Our customers will also win, as additional spectrum capacity becomes available to support surging mobile Internet usage.”

In the fast-paced world of tech three years may seem like an eternity, but in the plodding world of telecom, three years is the flap of a hummingbird’s wings. AT&T has to get the Wireless Communications Services (WCS) band approved for LTE use by the standards bodies, it has to buy up many of the remaining WCS licenses it doesn’t already own, and it has to secure commitments from equipment vendors and handset makers to build gear and phones for the new band. After that it presumably has to test that gear to ensure that it doesn’t interfere with Sirius XM’s satellite radio signals – problems that have prevented AT&T from using those airwaves for more than a decade.

To be honest, AT&T can probably take care of all of that in a year or two, but carriers don’t like to be pinned down to specific timelines. For instance, when the FCC tried to impose on Dish Network a three-year deadline launching LTE in its satellite spectrum, Dish insisted it couldn’t get even a modest network up in fewer than four years, and it fabricated all kinds of technical excuses to support its claims. You’ll notice by AT&T’s wording it isn’t guaranteeing a new network in 2015, but by even suggesting it could move that quickly, AT&T is behaving distinctly un-carrier-like.

Of course, AT&T has plenty of strategic and political reasons for targeting a relatively quick rollout over its new airwaves. AT&T has been lobbying Washington hard for new airwaves, claiming it faces a looming spectrum crisis. If it were to simply sit on its newly 4G-ified airwaves, it would not go over well with regulators and lawmakers, to say nothing of the public policy and consumer advocacy groups that dog the carrier’s every move. Ma Bell at least has to go through the motions.

But AT&T may have legitimate need of this WCS spectrum sooner rather than later. Its current LTE network in the 700 MHz band is constrained in some key markets. While it has backup spectrum in the Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) airwaves, it was forced to part with a lot of those airwaves after its failed merger with T-Mobile. It doesn’t have near enough AWS licenses to double down on 4G capacity nationwide. But as we’ve pointed out in the past, these rejiggered WCS airwaves are AT&T’s best bet for building a consistent, high-capacity 4G network coast to coast — something it’s never had the luxury of doing until now.

Image courtesy of Flickr user kaibara87.

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Those bands are cellular and PCS, which operators today use for their 2G and 3G networks. The revelation is surprising, though it’s certainly not suspicious. Except for Sprint, no iPhone operator is launching LTE on those bands, and Sprint uses a different iPhone variant than AT&T. Apple had no reason to include those bands in its specs because there’s no network this particular iPhone could conceivably connect to – at least not yet.

The question is why Apple added these bands, and the answer is almost certainly because AT&T asked it to. AT&T is currently launching LTE over its 700 MHz network, and it has stated it will launch LTE in the Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) frequencies. But its spectrum holdings in AWS are dwindling as it just handed over a bunch of licenses to T-Mobile.

AT&T has made no secret of the fact it is hunting around for new bands over which to deploy LTE since its current LTE networks will only get it so far. It just submitted an enormously complex proposal to the FCC that would allow it to turn its now useless 2.3 GHz into a private LTE band. But these new frequencies in the iPhone hint at another possibility: Ma Bell may be planning to cannibalize its 2G and 3G networks to gain more LTE capacity.

AT&T has on average 55 MHz of PCS and cellular spectrum nationwide, and it’s pretty much all accounted for. In some parts of the country, AT&T has begun shutting down parts of its GSM network, but it isn’t replacing with it LTE, rather its building new HSPA networks. But now that the iPhone is fully LTE compatible, its mobile data burden will start shifting from 3G to 4G. When enough of that traffic has made the journey, AT&T could start shutting down 2G or 3G capacity. And once it clears out a contiguous 10 MHz chunk it could build an LTE network.

All US carriers will eventually refarm their 2G and 3G spectrum – T-Mobile has already shut down most of its GSM network — but it will likely take years before they seriously start messing around with those frequencies. That’s why it’s puzzling that the new iPhone supports those frequencies today. European operators are a year away from having sizable LTE network on their 2.6 GHz spectrum, yet Apple nixed those frequencies from all its iPhones. Why would it make cellular and PCS such big exceptions?

Either AT&T has enormous pull with Apple, convincing it to make an iPhone that will work on networks years away from being deployed. Or AT&T is planning a massive reconfiguration of its networks in the next year, something akin to the major network overhaul T-Mobile is doing today.

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Speaking at a T-Mobile media briefing, Illinois Institute of Technology Vice Provost and computer science research professor Dennis Roberson presented a study that accused Verizon of using flawed math when it made its efficiency calculations. He stated that once that math is corrected – surprise, surprise – T-Mobile comes out on top.

You can look at Roberson’s full regulatory filing and presentation on T-Mobile’s Website, but basically his argument is this: Verizon treats all of its connections as equals in its analysis without accounting for the number and usage levels of smartphones consuming most of the bandwidth; and Verizon treats all spectrum as equal though some frequencies are more efficient than others.

What it boils down to, though, is that Verizon is crunching its numbers one way, and T-Mobile is crunching them another way. I’m sure if he so chose, Roberson could finagle that data to correlate Verizon’s spectrum use to an increase in tooth decay.

The pathetic thing about this situation is that T-Mobile isn’t wrong. T-Mobile is the most efficient user of spectrum in the country, while Verizon is probably the most inefficient. T-Mobile’s argument is sitting right in front of it. Verizon is parked on loads of Advanced Wireless Service (AWS) and 700 MHz licenses that it has yet to touch and – in the case of 700 MHz – actually plans to sell. The Federal Communications has even started calling Verizon on its spectrum warehousing practices.

Meanwhile, T-Mobile has put practically every megahertz of spectrum its has every bought to use either in its GSM or HSPA+ networks. In fact, T-Mobile is so strapped for airwaves, it’s cannibalizing its 2G networks to make room for more efficient mobile broadband technologies such as LTE. T-Mobile couldn’t make a better argument than that to show it’s making the most of the limited resources it has.

T-Mobile is angling to get this deal killed so it can get a shot at buying up the cable operators’ penthouse airwaves. I have little doubt if T-Mobile were to prevail it would make immediate and good use of those frequencies, while its competitors might sit on them for several years.

But I also think T-Mobile is being a bit hypocritical here. T-Mobile today may be coming off as the consumer hero in magenta-colored tights, but a year ago things were very different. At the beginning of 2011, Deutsche Telekom had all but written off its U.S. operator, refusing to invest any more in spectrum or infrastructure. It threw in the towel completely when it agreed to sell T-Mobile USA to AT&T – which was perhaps the most anti-competitive action imaginable.

T-Mo has basically done a complete 180 in the space of a year, and now it’s asking the FCC to accommodate its new role as industry savior. It may be the everyman’s carrier today, and that’s great. But who knows what T-Mobile will be tomorrow.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock user Picsfive

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Verizon is trying to buy the cable operators’ Advanced Wireless Service licenses, which would give it a near nationwide footprint of airwaves for an LTE overlay to complement its current 4G network at 700 MHz. To sweeten the pot and gain regulators’ permission for the buy, Verizon has offered to sell off its spare airwaves in the 700 MHz band to other operators.

Carriers like T-Mobile and Sprint, along with a slew of consumer advocacy and telecom industry groups, have criticized the deal, claiming Verizon is merely trying to lock up the most valuable 4G airwaves in the market in order to keep them out of its competitors hands. The implication here is that Verizon locked down the A and B blocks, and now that much more valuable AWS frequencies are in play, it will do the same with the cable operators’ licenses.

In the letter (pdf), Kaplan points out that under the terms of the 700 MHz auction Verizon is required to build networks in the A and B blocks by no latter than June of 2013, yet it appears to have done nothing with those licenses. He asks:

“…what steps to date, if any, has Verizon Wireless taken to deploy mobile services using the Lower 700 MHz A of B block licenses (either or both)? On what timetable has Verizon Wireless been planning to deploy mobile service in these Lower 700 MHz blocks?”

Kaplan also wanted to know why the sale of those 700 MHz licenses was contingent on it grabbing the cable AWS spectrum. The FCC wants to how that’s relevant, if Verizon had tried to sell its extra 700 MHz licenses in the past, and whether Verizon truly plans to abandon the spectrum sale if the cable deal isn’t approved. Kaplan wants answers next Tuesday.

Verizon is in a tricky situation here. Those A and B block licenses don’t fit well into its LTE plans for multiple reasons: the goofy configuration of the 700 MHz band, the fact that they don’t form a nationwide footprint and interference concerns in A block. When Verizon bid on them and won them in 2008, it probably wanted them as insurance – or to keep them out of AT&T’s hands. It was hoping something better would come along, and it did — in the form of nice big gift-wrapped package of clean nationwide airwaves delivered by its new cable buddies.

The truth is that operators pull these kind of warehousing shenanigans all the time. AT&T, Verizon and the cable companies haven’t done squat with the AWS licenses they won them in 2006. But you don’t actually admit to your regulator that warehousing is what you planned to do along. It got Comcast in trouble a few months back. Now the FCC is asking Verizon the question directly, and a lot hinges on Big Red’s answer. If you’re trying to convince the FCC to approve a spectrum sale, it’s not a good idea to tell them you have been a lousy steward of the public airwaves so far.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Mark Strozier

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Root’s study, which uses a combination of drive and indoor testing as well as crowdsourced data, clocked average downlink speeds on AT&T’s Chicago network at 7.6 Mbps and upload speeds at 4 Mbps. In a recent analysis of 15 major markets Root conducted for GigaOM, the firm found that AT&T was delivering the an average of 17.4 Mbps downstream and 8 Mbps upstream.

That severe drop-off in Chicago is explained by the fact that AT&T has only 10 MHz of 700 MHz spectrum in Chicago while it has 20 MHz in most markets, allowing it to match Verizon hertz for hertz. T-Mobile’s dual-carrier HSPA+ network was almost able to match AT&T’s LTE download performance, though AT&T still won out easily when it came to sending packets the other direction.

Chicago isn’t the only market where AT&T is capacity constrained. Root found an even bigger drop off in speeds in Los Angeles earlier this year. GigaOM contributor and spectrum policy wonk Andrew Shepherd looked at AT&T’s spectrum holdings in its 2012 launch markets, finding that AT&T also is limited to 10 MHz in Oklahoma City; Athens, Ga.; Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, N.C.; San Juan, Puerto Rico, and in a handful of smaller markets in Texas and Indiana.

What does it all mean? While AT&T may lose its “fastest network” bragging rights in the spectrum-constrained cities, it’s still capable of delivering a stellar mobile broadband experience. In my own — admittedly unscientific – speed tests in Chicago’s north side and northwest suburbs, I experienced pretty consistent speeds in the city of nearly 6 Mbps down and nearly 4 Mbps up. When I got onto the freeway and out into the burbs those numbers improved considerably. Those links are fast enough to handle with ease anything you could do on a smartphone.

The bigger concern for AT&T is congestion. Its lesser spectrum holdings not only limit the connection to the device, but the overall capacity of its network. If Apple releases an LTE version of the iPhone this year, AT&T will fill up its networks in Chicago with LA with the new smartphones far more quickly than Verizon. Still, AT&T has plenty of recourse when it comes to capacity. It still hasn’t tapped into its Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) spectrum, which allows it to layer on much more bandwidth to its 4G networks. Also, AT&T is being more aggressive than most in pursuing new capacity-boosting technologies such as small cells and self-optimizing networks.

Chicago image courtesy of Flickr user Bert Kaufmann

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On April 19, Verizon Wireless surprised many people by announcing that it would sell its 700MHz A-and B-block holdings if the Federal Communications Commission approves its proposed $3.9 billion purchase of SpectrumCo and Cox Communications’ Advanced Wireless Spectrum (AWS) holdings (as well as a smaller spectrum swap with Leap Wireless). This comes despite Verizon’s recent well-publicized assertions that it will start running out of LTE capacity by 2013 if it doesn’t get approval for the SpectrumCo deal. That’s led some of us to wonder whether Verizon is really as short on spectrum as it claims.

However, what’s more intriguing is whether Verizon can actually pull off this sale and meet Verizon CFO Fran Shammo’s claims on its Q1 2012 results call that Verizon will be able to get a “return” on its original investment:

“I think there were some articles written that this is going to be a fire sale. This is nothing near a fire sale. We bought this spectrum back in 2008. We’ve had carrying costs, and we will be prudent to our shareholders to make sure we get the return our investments. We know what the value of this spectrum is in the free market, and obviously, we’re going to an auction to allow many different parties to participate through a third-party auctioneer. And look, if we don’t get the price that we think is a fair price, then we won’t go through with the sale, and that’s at our discretion.”

As Public Knowledge’s Harold Feld points out, Verizon is making as an incredibly smart move to wrong-foot both its competitors and the FCC. In as single stroke it can get its SpectrumCo transaction approved without allowing smaller competitors to close the “spectrum gap” between themselves and AT&T and Verizon. Moreover, if the FCC allows Verizon to set a reserve price on its 700 MHz licenses based on its apparent intention to make a profit over what was paid in 2008, it is possible that Verizon may be able to get its AWS while keeping many of the A-and B-block licenses it claims to be sacrificing. Verizon paid relatively high prices for those licenses in 2008, and it is far from clear whether smaller competitors are in a position to pay more for these licenses today than they were prepared to bid back in 2008.

Verizon’s spectrum, block by block

If we take out the Chicago A-block license that is being swapped with Leap, then Verizon is selling a total of 1.65 billion MHz-POPs (The total megahertz of spectrum multiplied by the population covered) of A-block spectrum, which cost $2.42 billion in the auction, or $1.46 per MHz-POP, plus a further 556 million MHz-POPs of B-block spectrum, which cost it $2.05 billon, or $3.69 per MHz-POP. The Leap transaction provides one potential benchmark for a sale of 700MHz A-block spectrum. Verizon is reportedly valuing it at $204M, or $1.65 per MHz-POP, which would be a 34 percent premium over the $152 million that Verizon Wireless paid for this license in the 2008 auction. But since this deal involves a spectrum swap, and not a cash transaction, neither side had any incentive to reduce the price of these assets. When looking at the much bigger sale now being proposed by Verizon, we need to consider who has a need for this spectrum and what they might be prepared to pay.

As many have indicated, AT&T is the most obvious potential buyer, but it is important to realize that AT&T didn’t buy any A-block spectrum in the 2008 auction and has objected vehemently to making its LTE phones compatible with the A block, due to interference concerns. As a result, AT&T would hardly be likely to undermine its arguments to the FCC by buying this spectrum. AT&T would clearly be interested in the B block, where it bought a total of 2.1 billion MHz-POPs of spectrum in the 2008 auction for $6.64 billion ($3.15/MHz-POP). Of course this was to complement the 2.4 billion MHz-POPs of Aloha 700 MHz spectrum that AT&T bought beforehand for only $2.5 billion ($1.06/MHz-POP).

In other words, AT&T’s current 700MHz spectrum holdings cost only $2.05 per MHz-POP (a 44 percent discount to what Verizon paid for the B-block) and even AT&T’s B-block auction purchases cost 15 percent less than Verizon paid. It’s easy to see why this is the case: Verizon’s auction strategy in the B-block involved pushing up the price AT&T had to pay, before switching to the much cheaper upper C-block (where the price of only $0.76 per MHz-POP was kept low by the open access conditions imposed by the FCC at Google’s behest). So the licenses that Verizon was left with in the lower B-block were mainly the ones on which AT&T was unwilling to outbid it.

The classic example is Chicago. In the Windy City, Verizon paid $892M for a license covering 97M MHzPOPs, which works out to be $9.16 per MHz-POP, a substantial premium over other licenses. If AT&T wasn’t willing to exceed that price in 2008, it probably isn’t willing to do so today. While AT&T may be willing to pick up a number of the other B-block licenses at close to the prices Verizon paid, Verizon may well be left holding at least the expensive Chicago license unless it is prepared to sell this license at a substantial discount.

Do we have an A-block problem?

Verizon also faces a challenge to achieving a profitable sale in the A block. At this point in time there is uncertainty over the outcome of the FCC’s 700MHz interoperability proceeding, which could require AT&T to make its phones compatible with the A-block. That would boost the value of the A-block spectrum considerably, making it easier for smaller lower 700 MHz holders to get phones and roam on AT&T’s networks. However, Verizon paid far more than most other bidders those licenses back in the 2008 auction. While Verizon paid $1.46 per MHz-POP for it’s A-block spectrum, the other winners of A-block licenses paid only $0.79 per MHz-POP).

Of course, Verizon’s licenses cover far more attractive urban markets, but the big cities are the areas most subject to interference caused by neighboring Channel 51 TV broadcast stations. In addition there are relatively few bidders: T-Mobile has implicitly said that it is not interested, Sprint is not in a position to buy more spectrum, Leap probably can’t afford it, and Dish Network has bought all the spectrum it needs for a network buildout. That leaves us with MetroPCS (which bought the Boston A-block license in the 2008 auction for $313M, or $3.28 per MHz-POP), but MetroPCS has little reason to pay a premium for this spectrum if it isn’t feeling any immediate competitive pressure from other wireless operators to up its bid.

The outcome of the auction may therefore be significantly affected by how the FCC decides to approach the proposed sale. The FCC could allow Verizon to make a voluntary sale (which may then be predicated Verizon turning a profit on the spectrum – potentially causing licenses to go unsold), or it could impose a condition that this spectrum must be sold within a defined period after completion of the AWS transactions. If it’s the former, Verizon may well get it’s cake and eat it, too. If it’s the latter, the dynamic would change significantly, giving bidders like AT&T and MetroPCS much more leverage to negotiate on price. As a result, if Verizon was forced to sell all of the 700 MHz spectrum within a certain time frame, it could wind up taking a significant loss, raising questions about whether buying this spectrum was really such a good investment after all.

Tim Farrar is President of Telecom, Media and Finance Associates, a consulting and research firm in Menlo Park, CA, which specializes in technical and financial analysis across the satellite and telecom sectors.

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Pioneer Cellular has added a small but notable entry to the growing list of LTE networks in the U.S. Telecompetitor reports Pioneer’s LTE service has gone live in six counties in Oklahoma, making it the first of Verizon’s “LTE in Rural America” partners to turn on its network.

The program is all part of the Verizon Wireless master plan to get accelerate the usually slow slog of new technology from urban to rural areas by recruiting rural operators to do the work. Verizon essentially owns a nationwide LTE license in the upper 700 MHz band, and while it plans to build its own 4G network covering 260 million people in the big and small cities, it’s leasing its airwaves in rural regions to about a dozen small operators. Those carriers will help Verizon fill in the gaping holes between the urban regions.

Rural operators like Pioneer get a lot out of the deal. They’re often the ones that failed to win 4G licenses, making the Rural America program their easiest path to 4G, but more importantly they get an automatic roaming partner in Verizon, which plans to leverage their networks to expand its LTE coverage in exchange. Smaller operators that own their own spectrum will find their roaming options limited due to interoperability problems in the 700 MHz bands.

Verizon is also in the center of a powerful device ecosystem. By virtue of using the same spectrum as Verizon, Pioneer and other Rural America partners can use the same devices. According to Telecompetitor, Pioneer is launching with a home broadband router, a MiFi hotspot and a dongle but no smartphones. Technically though, making any Verizon device compatible with Pioneer’s network will mean a mere software tweak. We may even see the new 4G iPad make its way to rural Oklahoma LTE networks before it appears on an LTE network in Europe or Asia.

Tower Image courtesy of Flickr user Nikhil Verma

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