On the heels of the one-year anniversary of its 4G LTE service rollout, Verizon Wireless has granted Pocketnow exclusive access to one of their switches in southeastern Pennsylvania. The switch (or Mobile Telephone Switching Office – MTSO) is a hub of Verizon’s network in the Philadelphia tri-state area: it’s what connects the towers in the region and processes all voice and data calls. The switch, which is a building filled with miles of fiber optic cable, a battery backup system and a generator system, dozens of servers, and a control room that monitors precise data as it pertains to the performance and stability of the system, is a marvel of engineering and technology.

We also get to witness Verizon’s obsession with reliability of their network. Each and every component is redundant within the switch so that if there are any equipment failures or even a natural disaster that disrupts power to the entire facility, Verizon customers are likely to still have service.

We also learn a lot about the difference between Verizon’s 3G and 4G network, the latter of which now reaches 200 million people in 190 markets across the U.S., including much of the Philadelphia region. During multiple Q&A session, we learn about the capabilities of Verizon’s 4G LTE network, which is only going to increase with further network upgrades.

Thank you to the folks at Verizon Wireless for letting us take a tour of the infrastructure that is responsible for making their network operate. If you want to learn even more about Verizon’s network, check out our exclusive tour of their hardware testing lab.