Nashville Technology Council

Yesterday Verizon Wireless announced the launch of  their Long Term Evolution (LTE) 4G wireless network. The 4G LTE mobile broadband roll out is a benefit for the mobile “road warrior” business user.  The 4G LTE will give  customers speeds up to 10 times faster than Verizon Wireless’ current 3G network offering.  Data plans will start at $50 for monthly access.  Verizon Wireless expects to expand  4G LTE to reach its existing 3G coverage area by 2013.  Verizon Wireless anticipates consumer oriented handsets compatible with 4G to be available in mid 2011.

Nashville is included in the 38 metropolitan roll-out on Sunday, December 5th.  Customers can check out www.verzionwireless.com/4Glte to see if their address will be included in the initial coverage area.  Street level maps of coverage areas will be available online on Saturday.

You can find more information on this roll-out via Verizon Wireless’ official press release.

Occasionally we feature content on our Newswire from our members.  This Monday morning, Nashville Technology Council member DJ Rodriguez of Sprint summarizes their launch event last week for the very first4G handset to hit the market in the United States.

On Thursday, July 15^th Sprint hosted a customer “Happy Hour” event at Ellendale’s in Donelson to promote the launch of the nation’s first 4G handset: the HTC EVO 4G.  With over 50 companies in attendance, which included representatives from local small & medium-sized businesses, local city, county, and state government, to Fortune 1000 powerhouses like Nissan, Deloitte, & HCA, the tone of the event was festive and filled with excitement as HTC and Sprint showed off features of this ground-breaking device which put it at the top of the heap of smart devices available on the market today.

Following a 4G presentation highlighting the next generation mobile broadband set to launch in Nashville later this year and another by HTC highlighting the many, many features of the EVO, those in attendance were given the opportunity to play with demo devices are try out some of the industry “firsts” this device has to offer such as:

• Video calling via either the 1.3MP front-facing or 8MP rear-facing cameras with applications like Qik and Fring
• 3G/4G Mobile Hotspot which connects up to 8 WiFi-capable devices such as an iPad, laptops, etc
• 720p video recording
• High-definition video playback via the HDMI-out port
• Applications such as Google Goggles, Google Navigation, Layar Reality Browser, Speech-to-Text, Sling Player Mobile, and countless others available via the Android Market

With a long history of “firsts” in both the wireline and wireless industries and recent rewards and recognition such as Sprint being the most improved company in customer satisfaction, across all industries, over the last two years, according to results from the 2010 American Customer Satisfaction Index, the HTC EVO 4G is yet another example why Sprint is a leader in the Nashville business and technology communities.

To learn more information and/or to get updates on 4G in Nashville, follow twitter.com/Nashville4G or like Nashville 4G on facebook.