Verizon Wireless has completed refarming its 1900 MHz spectrum in the nation’s largest city, NYC, an effort first begun in 2014.
The company recently converted the last remaining 10 MHz block from CDMA 3G to LTE 4G, which means Verizon is running LTE on 20 MHz of its Band 2 spectrum in New York City. Devices that support LTE in Band 2 should have access to Verizon’s network in that spectrum in addition to the 700 MHz it already uses for LTE.
The refarming leaves CDMA operational only in the 850 MHz band in NYC. This reduces access to Verizon’s legacy 3G network. Verizon has committed to running CDMA / 1x through 2019, though it is still expected to convert some of its 850 MHz spectrum to LTE between now and then.
