verizon.com

Verizon Wireless recently completed a comprehensive network upgrade that delivers expanded service in the Upstate of South Carolina.

The result is 58 new cell towers into the already robust and industry-leading Verizon Wireless voice and data network in the Upstate. The addition of these new towers, a result of the Alltel purchase, means dramatically denser site coverage.  For Verizon Wireless customers, more cell towers means a more expansive voice and data footprint, more coverage inside buildings, improved throughput speeds and stronger signals throughout the market.

“The best network continues to get better,” said Jerry Fountain, Verizon Wireless Carolinas Region President.  ”Our network techs, switch engineers, project managers and performance engineers have been working around the clock to integrate these two networks.  With the addition of these towers to our already superior network, customers are experiencing a density in coverage unmatched in this market.”

As customers continue to expand the way they use their devices, Verizon Wireless continues to stay ahead of their demand.  ”People are doing more with their phones these days,” said Fountain.  ”The skyrocketing popularity of apps, music and video downloads, web browsing, texting, emailing, calendar management and navigation tools utilizes a tremendous amount of wireless bandwidth.  With this integration, combined with our annual capital investments over the past several years, we are ready for today’s traffic and the increasing traffic of tomorrow.”

In 2009 alone, Verizon Wireless invested nearly $87 million in South Carolina for improvements to their network bringing the total investment in the state to $770 million since the company was formed in 2000.  That investment, combined with the recent purchase and integration of the Alltel network assets, strategically positions Verizon Wireless’ network as the largest and most reliable for customers in the Upstate with seven times the 3G coverage of their closest competitor.

“Not only are we the largest network, but with the security of our facilities, redundancy built into our systems and backup batteries and generators at our sites, we provide unmatched reliability for our customers.  When they want to make a call or access the web, we’re ready,” said Fountain.