Verizon Wireless plans LTE trial for next year

Move makes the carrier's 4G direction official

By Matt Hamblen

November 29, 2007 12:00 PM ET

Comments

Computerworld - Verizon Wireless today picked Long Term Evolution (LTE) as its fourth-generation wireless technology, and said it would start trials next year.

Company officials have been suggesting this direction for two months or longer, but made it official today, a spokesman said.

Provisioning for LTE expands on Tuesday's news of an open-access Verizon Wireless network that will have the capacity to handle new devices and applications, company spokesman Tom Pica added. "It's like the couple that assumes they are getting married until one of them actually pops the question," Pica said.

A coordinated trial plan for LTE will begin in 2008, with a number of trial suppliers, including Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia Siemens and Nortel Networks, the company said. Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone jointly own U.S-based Verizon Wireless, with nearly 64 million customers.

LTE, which is based on IP, is designed to provide download speeds of 100Mbit/sec. and uploads speeds half as fast, according to a variety of analysts and sources. The spokesman said the speeds would range in the 10s of Mbit/sec. Currently, Verizon uses CDMA and EV-DO networks.

Vodafone today also said it is conducting a joint engineering trial of LTE, which it would build atop its third-generation high-speed packet access network technology. In September, Vodafone said it could offer LTE commercially in 2010, but that a common platform with Verizon might not happen until 2015.

Comment Recommend Digg Twitter ShareThis

Email Print Send Feedback Reprints

Jump to comments

verizon wireless

Additional Resources

Xerox

Win a color printer!

By using solid ink technology only from Xerox, you could save up to 65% by printing color for the cost of black and white. Enter for a chance to WIN a PhaserTM 8860 network color printer!

Microsoft

Upgrade to Internet Explorer 8 today.

Save time and mitigate security risk. Deploy it now.

Sybase

NEXT-GENERATION MOBILITY PLATFORMS

In this white paper, IDC analyzes the role of next-generation mobile enterprise platforms as organizations seek a more strategic deployment of mobile solutions.

Learn the important issues you must consider before starting your next mobility initiative. Get your mobility white paper from IDC now, compliments of Sybase.