Santa Barbara County Verizon Wireless customers will be able to browse the Web faster starting Thursday as the nation’s largest wireless provider rolls out its 4G Long Term Evolution network.

Verizon customers in Buelton, Carpinteria, downtown Santa Barbara, Goleta, Los Alamos, Orcutt, Santa Maria, Solvang and Summerland will be able to surf the Internet and download files about 10 times faster than before.

“We are proud to bring our 4G LTE network to Santa Barbara County and help lead residents, small businesses and local government into the next generation of connectivity and communications technology,” Kevin Zavaglia, Verizon’s regional president, said in a release.

Verizon introduced its 4G LTE network on Dec. 5, 2010, and plans to cover more than 185 million Americans by the end of this year. It will expand its network in San Francisco, Indianapolis and Cleveland on Thursday and will add 26 new markets.

AT&T, the nation’s second-largest provider, will launch its 4G LTE network in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Chicago and Atlanta by summer’s end. It will add 10 more cities and cover 70 million customers by the end of the year, said Georgia Taylor, AT&T director of news relations for California.

She added that although AT&T will launch its network later, when its customers roam out of 4G LTE coverage they will connect to an HSPA-plus network that is faster than the competition’s 3G alternative.

AT&T has seen an 8,000 percent increase on data traffic in the past four years and estimates it will be 10 times that by 2015. It has invested $7.1 billion during the past three years in creating and improving cell sites to keep up with that demand, according to Taylor.

AT&T may become the largest provider in the nation if its deal with Deutsche Telekom to acquire T-Mobile goes through. The Justice Department filed an antitrust suit last month to block the proposed acquisition.

“This merger is the most efficient and effective way to create a faster experience for our customers,” said Taylor, adding that the merger would not boost prices. 

Cox Communications also will introduce wireless phone and mobile high-speed Internet service in Santa Barbara by the year’s end.

— Noozhawk business writer Alex Kacik can be reached at akacik@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.