Verizon plans new cell network

Verizon Wireless said Wednesday that it planned to offer a new high-speed network in all U.S. regions by 2015 and picked Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson to build the system.

Verizon will start offering the new wireless standard, called Long-Term Evolution, in some parts of the U.S. in 2010, said Dick Lynch, the company’s chief technology officer. Verizon Wireless is co-owned by New York-based Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group.

The technology is designed to give customers broadband-level speeds and downloading power comparable to personal computers. The rollout will pit Verizon against WiMax technology backed by Sprint Nextel Corp., Google Inc., Comcast Corp. and Intel Corp.

Verizon Communications’ investments, which amounted to about $17 billion annually in past years, won’t increase as a result of the network construction, Lynch said. “We’ll be getting all the money we need to do this program” as deployment of the preceding third-generation network will be completed, freeing funds.