Tony Melone, Verizon Wireless Senior VP, said during an interview at the CTIA Wireless 2009 tradeshow that the 4G network on which the company is currently working will cover the entire continental U.S. 

 

"The licenses we bought in the 700MHz auction cover the whole U.S. And we plan to roll out LTE throughout the entire country, including places where we don't offer our CDMA cell phone service today," said the Verizon Wireless VP. 

 

The main problem is that building infrastructure for land-based broadband networks is expensive. Furthermore, cell phone service carriers are reluctant to this because they can’t make profits by offering their services in the regions with a low number of inhabitants. It’s very costly to build the infrastructure and after they do it, the number of potential customers is very small. 

 

According to the latest data from Pew Internet & American Life Project nearly 38 percent of rural American households have access to high-speed Internet connections. Approximately 57 percent of the city residents have access to broadband while 60 percent of the suburb residents have it. 

 

Meanwhile Verizon Communications CEO Ivan Seidenberg said that, despite the current economic meltdown, the cell phone industry is still strong and will be a key factor in pulling the country out of the economic crisis through market growth and constant innovations. Verizon Communications is the parent company of Verizon Wireless.