verizon wireless iphone

Verizon Wireless is one of two major U.S. carriers that use CDMA technology, the other being Sprint Nextel. Alltel also used CDMA before becoming part of Verizon Wireless. Other regional carriers that use CDMA are: U.S. Cellular, Cricket, and MetroPCS (see List of United States mobile phone companies for more information). Verizon supports the 4 generations of CDMA (IS-95, 1x, EV-DO, and e-HRPD) networks and now its newest 4G LTE service which was released on Sunday December 5, 2010 in many cities. At that time, 4G LTE service was only offered as a mobile broadband data option. 4G LTE-Compatible Verizon mobile phones were released in the first quarter of 2011.

Verizon Wireless invests $5.7 billion annually on average to maintain and expand its nationwide CDMA network. Verizon Wireless offers voice services as well as 3G data services such as wireless broadband based on EV-DO Rev A, text and picture messaging, over-the-air downloadable applications and content from its “Media Center” ( previously called, Get-It-Now) service, Video on Demand in the form of V CAST (which allows customers to download and view video content), location-based services, and Push-to-Talk.

On June 30, 2007, Verizon Wireless completed the overhaul of the entire EV-DO network to EV-DO Rev. A. This enables PC Cards and certain phones to obtain theoretical peak download speeds of 3.1 Mbit/s and upload speeds of up to 1.8 Mbit/s. The actual download and upload speeds vary due to a number of factors, and users will typically see speeds close to 1 Mbit/s down, and 500 kbit/s up.

On November 27, 2007, Verizon Wireless announced plans to allow all cell phones compatible with their CDMA technology to run on their network. Users of such phones are also allowed to use any application they wish.