Did you know that renowned author Laura Ingalls Wilder’s husband lived on a farm in Spring Valley, Minnesota? Neither did I. You know what else is awesome about Spring Valley, Minnesota, population 2,479? You can get blazing fast Verizon 4G LTE service there!

In Wilder’s day, communication was by Pony Express. Today, rural residents without high-speed, reliable home internet access may feel a kinship to those outmoded forms of communication. But now with Verizon’s 4G LTE broadband service available in parts of southern Minnesota, and more than 470 markets across the nation, more and more consumers and business customers are taking advantage of the super fast 4G LTE signal.

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In Jeff Harbour’s world of ambulances and emergency responder crews, he knows firsthand how important speed and reliability are.

Jeff serves as the director of the Kanawha County Emergency Ambulance Authority (KCEAA), which responds to all 911 emergency medical and trauma calls in Kanawha County, West Virginia – roughly 65,000 to 70,000 ambulance calls a year.

As technology advances, the KCEAA has upgraded its fleet of ambulances with mobile technology such as 3G wireless routers that act as WiFi hotspots and electronic patient care forms that are transmitted securely using the Verizon Wireless 3G network. Its ambulances even transmit a GPS signal so that the KCEAA control center has real-time data on the location of its fleet.

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As eight promising startups unveiled their “big idea” at Common Pitch Milwaukee in June, Verizon Wireless technology and network strength helped share their ideas with the world.

With a RAZR Maxx and the power of 4G LTE, Verizon Wireless broadcasted the event live from Turner Hall ballroom in Milwaukee via Ustream, giving those who weren’t in attendance the opportunity to tune in live.

Common Pitch is an international event series that allows budding entrepreneurs a platform to share their ideas and receive valuable industry feedback. The concepts the startups presented were judged by a panel of six influential judges. (more…)

The numbers are in from Super Bowl XLVI this past Sunday in Indianapolis…

From sharing pregame photos on Facebook to tweeting about the game-winning drive, Verizon Wireless customers at Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis were busier than ever on their wireless devices, using 2.75 times more data than last year’s Super Bowl in Dallas and 4.5 times more data than a regular-season game at the stadium.

The Verizon Wireless pregame plan enhanced the network at more than 30 venues around Indianapolis, including major hotels and all of the facilities where the game and related events took place. In addition to the all-time high data usage for a Super Bowl game, Verizon Wireless customers were talking up a storm. Call volume soared more than 1,000% – that’s 11 times more voice calls – than a regular-season Colts game.

Super Bowl XLVI was the most viewed game all season on NFL Mobile, with 40% more viewers watching compared to Wildcard Weekend and more than twice the number of viewers compared to the highest-viewed regular season game. Viewership grew steadily over the course of the game with the highest viewing levels in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter.

Verizon Wireless 4G LTE smartphone and tablet customers used our 4G LTE network to stay connected and share the best moments of the year’s biggest sporting event with friends, family and fellow fans. Complementing the network, Verizon Wireless’ newly constructed Wi-Fi systems at the stadium and convention center enabled all wireless users, not just our customers, to stay in touch throughout the game.

For some background info – Verizon Wireless has invested more than $70 billion since being formed to increase the coverage and capacity of our network and to add new services.

So whether standing on the sidelines, in the streets of Indianapolis, or watching across the country, Verizon Wireless customers won – big time!

In case you missed any of our posts leading up to the Super Bowl, check out the behind-the-scenes Verizon network tour at Lucas Oil Stadium and photos from Verizon Training Ground Day at Super Bowl 46 NFL Experience.

For more Verizon Wireless news and reviews out of Indiana and other Midwest region states, subscribe via RSS to news by state.

James Cushing from The Gadgets in Indiana participated in a network tour at Lucas Oil Stadium where Verizon Wireless Network Director Eric Mann gave reporters and bloggers a behind-the-scenes look at our upgrades for the Super Bowl.

First I’d like to thank a few people for giving me the opportunity to come down and tour the stadium. I had a great time, and got to see behind the scenes of one of the most exciting events of the year. Thank you to Michelle Gilbert of Verizon Wireless PR, Kyle Niederpruem of Kyle Communications, and Eric Mann, Verizon Director of Network Engineering. You guys were excellent hosts, and I look forward to working with you again in the future.

Every year, the Super Bowl attracts crowds upwards of 100,000 people. It’s the largest televised sporting event in the country, and as such you can imagine that in the age of mobile tech, the demands on any wireless network are extreme. People will want to access their email, send photos, upload videos, post on Facebook, and tweet about their experiences. Carriers, therefore, have put a lot of time and money into making sure that the infrastructure to handle all that traffic is in place. While I didn’t get to see what the other carriers have done in this regard, I was privileged to get to see what Verizon has done, as the official partner of the NFL. Michelle Gilbert said, “We want to be sure that when you send your picture, when you send your tweet, update you Facebook status, that it will happen.”

Verizon now covers 200 million Americans with LTE in 191 markets across the country. In the last year alone, Verizon has spent $159 million in the state of Indiana, much of that in Indianapolis, preparing to handle the demands of Super Bowl attendees. Their expenditures included an additional $69 million over last year for the Hoosier state, and it’s a sound bet that the bulk of that overage has been dedicated to the Super Bowl.

Read the rest and see photos on The Gadget’s website.

For more Verizon Wireless news and reviews out of Indiana and other Midwest region states, subscribe via RSS to news by state.