Verizon, the Kansas City area’s other top wireless network, touts its coverage

Sprint’s crowing about its shared top network rating in the Kansas City area sparked a reminder Thursday from the other carrier rated best in town.

Verizon and Sprint tied in the latest rankings of wireless service in the Kansas City market from RootMetrics. Sprint’s triumph is that it won after having been out of the ranking spotlight locally since RootMetrics’ April 2011 report.

Sprint, based in Overland Park, is launching a push for customers in the Kansas City area as the hometown carrier with a winning network.

Brenda Hill, a spokeswoman for Verizon, noted that her employer’s LTE network — for its high-speed technology known as Long-Term Evolution — covers virtually all of Kansas, not just the population centers and major highways.

LTE is the fastest service for cellphones, tablets and other mobile devices to download apps, watch streaming videos and enjoy other popular smartphone features.

Verizon’s maps for the other carriers, notably Sprint and T-Mobile, show much less LTE coverage throughout the state. Sprint’s LTE coverage map on its website looks pretty much like the one Verizon offered.

And when it comes to RootMetrics ratings, Verizon has had a lock on bragging rights in Sprint’s hometown for years.

Before Verizon shared top honors with Sprint this year, it shared them with T-Mobile in both the twice-a-year rankings from RootMetrics for 2014.

Verizon shared the top Kansas City market rank with AT&T in RootMetrics’ second-half 2013 rankings.

Verizon alone held the top spot in RootMetrics’ rankings that covered the first half of 2013, all of 2012 and the second half of 2011.

This is why Sprint chief executive Marcelo Claure is so proud of his company’s new tie for first. In talking Wednesday with The Star, he acknowledged that Verizon’s network is perceived as the “gold standard.”

Claure’s other point is that Sprint’s service is cheaper. The company’s Cut Your Rate Plan in Half campaign is aimed directly at luring away Verizon and AT&T customers.

This story was originally published June 18, 2015 at 11:37 AM with the headline "Verizon, the Kansas City area’s other top wireless network, touts its coverage."