Verizon Wireless announced today it has expanded its BroadbandAccess wireless Internet service to the greater San Francisco Bay area, including nine area counties and offering a coverage area extending from Gilroy, CA, in the south to as far north as Healdsburg.
The expansion makes the service, announced in August 2005, the largest broadband wireless in the United States. Verizon claims that BroadbandAccess now covers more than 140 million Americans in 171 markets (which it classifies as cities of more than 100,000 citizens with more than 50 percent coverage) and 68 airports across the U.S. Verizon plans to expand BroadbandAccess in California along the Interstate 80 corridor, which runs from San Francisco toward the state capital Sacramento.
“The expansion of our high-speed wireless broadband network throughout the Greater Bay Area gives mobile professionals and consumers access to critical business information, as well as news and entertainment, when and where they need it,” said Rich Garwood, Northern California/Nevada regional president for Verizon Wireless. “Now it’s possible for people to have continuous wireless broadband Internet access while they are working in the field, commuting in a van-pool, or entertaining the kids with V CAST during a road trip.” Or, even more likely, when stuck in traffic somewhere east of San Jose.