@jbtaylor on tech

A little over a year ago, in November 2009, Sprint launched Sprint 4G in North Carolina. We're got 4G in metro Charlotte, including Huntersville, Monroe, Indian Trail, Mint Hill, Matthews, Gastonia, Mt. Holly, Harrisburg, Davidson and Cornelius.

In the Triad, we're in my hometown of Winston-Salem. We're also in Greensboro, High Point, Lexington, Clemmons, Thomasville, Trinity, Asheboro, Archdale, Jamestown, Kernersville, Reidsville, Burlington and Mebane.

In the Triangle, of course, we're in Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and Cary. But we're also in Carrboro, Hillsborough, Apex, Holly Springs, Fuquay-Varina (which is my favorite hyphenated place name in N.C. next to my hometown), Wake Forest, Garner, Knightdale and Morrisville.

Yesterday, our friends at Verizon announced plans to begin offering 4G in North Carolina, but their coverage will be limited at first. They will cover metro Charlotte, plus RDU -- the Raleigh-Durham International Airport.

We offer the country's largest selection of 4G capable devices -- we have 11 currently for sale -- including two phones: the HTC EVO 4G and the Samsung Epic 4G. Verizon, for its part, is following the same path we did in 2008 when we began our formal 4G rollout. (They will only sell modems at first, not phones. The phones will come "later in 2011" we're told.)

So if you live Charlotte, or you work at RDU, Verizon is now giving you a new 4G choice in North Carolina. But if you want a 4G phone and access to 4G coverage in the places where most North Carolinians live and work, Sprint remains a better choice.

I also think the pricing decision Verizon made is worth noting. They will sell you a 5MB a month plan for $50, which sounds great, except most 4G users consume more data than that. Our partners at Clearwire point out that their average customer uses 7MB a month. 7MB a month from Verizon will cost you $70 a month.

Verizon is offering a 10MB a month plan for $80.

At Sprint, we offer a 3G/4G Mobile Broadband Plan for $60 per month. The key difference -- it's UNLIMITED 4G use and 5 GB of 3G use each month.

We also offer a 4G Mobile Broadband Plan for $50 per month which includes unlimited 4G use.

While it's clear Verizon has a huge marketing budget to throw at their 4G offering, they will have to expand their network and device portfolio, and match our pricing offer to compete with us in North Carolina.

Meanwhile, people of the Triad and Triangle, if you're a Verizon customer, head to Charlotte for a Panthers game or drive to RDU for a flight if you want to use 4G. Or switch to Sprint.

Earlier this summer, J.D. Powers released its semi-annual report on wireless call quality. The company said among the major cities it surveyed, Charlotte has the poorest wireless coverage. They did not, however, provide a breakdown of where the major wireless companies stand in Charlotte; they just said on average, the coverage in Charlotte had the most problems.

That said, J.D. Powers did rank the carriers by region, and in the region where Charlotte is, Sprint tied for first with T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless. You know who was last.

Eric Frazier, a reporter with the Charlotte Observer, has a story in Sunday's paper which examines the obstacles carriers must overcome to build out an effective network. As part of this story, I arranged to give him a tour of a cell site so he could tell his readers a little bit more about the engineering that goes into ensure that you can make and receive a wireless call.

The story, while focused on Charlotte, could have been written about any metro area in the country. Because as I said in the story, no wireless company is 100 percent perfect, 100 percent of the time.

The photos I've linked to above are from the cell site tour I organized for Eric. But you'll also want to read the sidebar for the story, where Eric describes his impressions of the cell site we showed him. Just click on a box to left of the main story when you browser opens the main window.