Exclusive: Inside Verizon's 3G and 4G Network

On the heels of the one-year anniversary of its 4G LTE service rollout, Verizon Wireless has granted Pocketnow exclusive access to one of their switches in southeastern Pennsylvania. The switch (or Mobile Telephone Switching Office -- MTSO) is a hub of Verizon's network in the Philadelphia tri-state area: it's what connects the towers in the region and processes all voice and data calls. The switch, which is a building filled with miles of fiber optic cable, a battery backup system and a generator system, dozens of servers, and a control room that monitors precise data as it pertains to the performance and stability of the system, is a marvel of engineering and technology.

We also get to witness Verizon's obsession with reliability of their network. Each and every component is redundant within the switch so that if there are any equipment failures or even a natural disaster that disrupts power to the entire facility, Verizon customers are likely to still have service.

We also learn a lot about the difference between Verizon's 3G and 4G network, the latter of which now reaches 200 million people in 190 markets across the U.S., including much of the Philadelphia region. During multiple Q&A session, we learn about the capabilities of Verizon's 4G LTE network, which is only going to increase with further network upgrades.

Thank you to the folks at Verizon Wireless for letting us take a tour of the infrastructure that is responsible for making their network operate. If you want to learn even more about Verizon's network, check out our exclusive tour of their hardware testing lab: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JHXl_rXXRY

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• verizon
• wireless
• verizon wireless
• lte
• 4g
• 3g
• cellular
• tower
• network
• android
• mobile
• phone
• cell
• phones

[rsjet]

Final question... where's the galaxy nexus?

[Evan5138]

Should have asked them what's going on with the Galaxy Nexus

[BlueBenGo]

@deejoe233 Nothing you just said makes any sense. It's like you found a bunch of random words, squeezed them together, and pooped them out with the hope that it would sound clever.

[skyshock21]

Bah... marketing nonsense from the guy in the tie. LTE is just an implementation of an IP network. It's cool, but certainly nothing groundbreaking.

[deejoe233]

@carlace777 can you say Get the government off AT&T's back?? It's the lack of spectrum that is messing up cell service. The FCC regulates wireless spectrum. Everything goes through them - it takes up to 180 days (informally) just to get some spectrum to put on a couple dozen towers just so that they can make up for that stupid guy with the unlimited data plan making everyone else's calls drop. By the way, spectrum costs telco's billions each year to purchase...

[deejoe233]

@Mardux360 its a work in progress. Its a BRAND new technology and is only trialed in certain markets.

[wpgeek]

ram130, cause VZW wants the superior voice voice quality. That's why they deploy 1X carriers @ 800MHz and 3G EVDO rA carriers @ 1900MHz.

Remember the "nation's most reliable!?" yeah that...

AT&T's GSM 3G is newer in that they can do dynamic power/signal load balancing on their newer upgraded sites (and soon Sprint CDMA with Network Vision) in that if you are indoors it switches to 800/850MHz but outdoors close to site is 1900MHz. (Balancing in-door coverage & capacity).

VZW's 4G is the newest.

[ram130]

@wpgeek nice break down. Do you have any explanation why Verizon keeps their 3G network on 1900mhz and not go lower? Thanks..

[ram130]

Great video. I wish you asked why they kept 3G on 1900mhz? my phone always switching between 3G and 1x once inside. Can you ask them next time? Thanks

[ryanmajor2]

How many MAC channels does a tower have? Cause users on MAC channel can be viewed on some phones and it rarely goes over like 40-60

[Thegonagle]

@ulukita: I was amused by that--always selling. He was a pretty technical guy though, so it was interesting that he seemed genuinely excited to be asked about the new spectrum acquisition. It was as if he wanted to say "Oh yeah! And we plan to use it!"

I'd guess that LTE phones supporting both 700MHz and AWS frequencies will coming relatively soon now. AT&T should have bought the licences before Verizon did. Instead, AT&T wasted time and resources messing around with T-Mobile.

[Thegonagle]

Cool. Thanks to the Verizon employees who took the time to show us around, and thanks to the interviewer for sharing this fascinating experience.