By Wailin Wong |
Verizon Wireless is planning to spend $121 million this year on its
third-generation network in Illinois, beefing up its network to meet
growing demand from data-hungry consumers.

Of the $121 million, $24 million will go toward increasing the
network’s 3G data capacity by 34 percent, the carrier said in a
release. The overall investment also covers the construction of new
cell sites. Since Verizon Wireless was formed in 2000, the company has
spent an average $140 million per year on its Illinois network.

A report released last month by ABI Research showed that Verizon’s network carried the most data traffic in the U.S. last year. This finding counters the popular belief that AT&T bears the greatest amount of traffic because of the iPhone. Researchers at ABI said that the driver of data traffic is actually laptops connected to the mobile network. Verizon and Sprint, which generated 63 percent of data traffic on mobile networks last year, have far more laptop users than AT&T, ABI said.

Verizon is also planning to start rolling out its 4G network this year, using a technology called Long-Term Evolution, or LTE. To build the network, the company spent about $9 billion in a 2008 government auction of prime spectrum being vacated by television broadcasters in their transition to digital signals. This spectrum, considered “beachfront property” by the industry, will “cover every American in the U.S.” and “penetrates tremendously well,” T.J. Fox, president of the Illinois and Wisconsin region for Verizon, told the Tribune in an interview.

Early tests of Verizon’s 4G network shows speeds up to 10 times faster than 3G, Fox said. The 4G network is expected to be especially beneficial to consumers that watch a lot of online video or participate in online gaming — activities that require heavy data and fast, reliable speeds.

The first devices available on Verizon’s 4G network will be aircards for laptop connections. Mobile phones, as well as gadgets such as cameras and tablet PCs, are also expected to have 4G capability.

“I absolutely believe that (4G) bodes well for tablets and embedded devices,” Fox said. “These will be natural evolutions.”