By COLIN M. STEWART
Tribune-Herald Staff Writer
Are the Big Island’s mobile data networks up to providing the “ultrafast” 4G LTE Internet experience that Apple promised this week in announcing its newest iPad?
Yes. And no. It all depends where on the island you are, according to coverage maps for major carriers Verizon Wireless and AT&T. Which carrier you choose will also make a big difference.
One of the features Apple touted in the third iteration of its wildly popular tablet computer is the ability to access wireless Internet companies’ newest high-speed mobile data networks, collectively known as the fourth generation of cellular data networks, or 4G. There are a variety of configurations and speeds that wireless data networks provide, and shopping for a new phone or tablet can very quickly turn into a game of Scrabble, with consumers trying to make sense of a jumble of letters, like 3G, GSM, CDMA, HSPA+, EDGE and more.
Currently at the top of the heap on the Big Island is Verizon Wireless’ 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) service, which has been available since July 21. Verizon claims the LTE service allows customers to “surf the web, download files and share music and photos up to 10 times faster than before,” according to a press release. The next-generation technology can produce real-world download speeds of between 5 and 12 megabits per second, it added.
The company has been building the 4G LTE service out since December 2010, and anticipates offering it in all of its currently served data coverage areas by 2013. On the island of Hawaii, LTE is only available on the windward side, specifically in Hilo, Keaau, Mountain View and Pahoa.
Company spokeswoman Heidi Flato said Friday she didn’t know when Verizon might provide LTE service to customers on the Kona side. But, she added, Verizon is “way ahead of its competitors in terms of rollout. … Verizon decided on LTE early on as a technology, and we made the commitment and investment very early on.”
Nationwide, Verizon currently offers 4G LTE service to about three times as many people as AT&T.
As for AT&T’s 4G service, it covers the majority of the island using its HSPA+ service, which the company rebranded this week as “4G.” It is slower than LTE, but is still “very, very fast,” according to spokeswoman Anna Crowe. She could not provide specific download speeds for comparison, however.
“Over the course of the last few months, we’ve been working on launching LTE nationally,” she said. “But currently on Hawaii, we offer HSPA+. LTE is the next phase.”
As for when that next phase may arrive, Crowe said AT&T’s LTE service could be installed here in 2012 or 2013. In a press release dated Feb. 7, AT&T touted investing nearly $100 million in its Hawaii wireless and wired networks between 2009 and 2011, “with a focus on improving the company’s mobile broadband coverage and overall performance of its networks.”
Email Colin M. Stewart at cstewart@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
