Verizon And AT&T To Bring LTE Service To Every Inch Of America By 2014

Well, actually the middle of 2013 in Verizon’s case, but they’ve got more of a head start on AT&T.

In case you’re sitting somewhere holding an iPhone and discovering that there’s just no way to get a speed faster than 3G on it, the two biggest carriers in the nation are getting in gear on that.

Before we begin, yes, “Fran Shammo” is actually this person’s name. Now, Fran Shammo of Verizon announced that by the middle of 2013, Verizon would be finishing its LTE rollout. And AT&T is snarfing up spectrum at a ridiculous rate.

Part of this is pretty simple: With no 4G, there’s no compelling reason for people to buy smartphones, not to mention iPads. The other part, though, is that they simply have no other option. As Verizon noted, it didn’t want to buy other carriers and didn’t think the government would be all that enthused by the idea anyway.

They also have to be mildly nervous about Sprint becoming part of Softbank and T-Mobile buying up MetroPCS. And if you can’t merge, buy! That said, at least this is something that will benefit the consumer, and in AT&T’s case, maybe stop all those dropped call jokes.