Friday March 12, 2010
Verizon to offer LTE handset by mid-2011
11 March 2010 – Verizon Wireless plans to have LTE handsets available by the middle of next year, according to a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) interview with the operator’s CTO of its wireless division, Anthony Melone. The US operator plans to launch commercial LTE networks in 25 to 30 markets this year and told the WSJ that it would have a phone that runs on the technology three to six months after network launch. That timeframe would be six months earlier than the company has previously stated, according to the report. The first LTE phones will feature dual chipsets that fall back on to Verizon’s EV-DO 3G network when out of the reach of initial LTE networks.
The comments from Melone echo the thoughts of Verizon CTO Dick Lynch at last month’s GSMA Mobile World Congress, when Lynch said that “we have seen more interest in development of chipsets and devices than we originally thought – we underestimated it.” Initial LTE devices on Verizon’s new network will be USB dongles (as currently used on TeliaSonera’s LTE network, the first commercial network of its kind in the world), but the move to handsets will be key to the long-term success of the technology. Rival US operator Sprint Nextel – which has chosen WiMAX as its next-generation technology of choice – aims to have a mobile WiMAX handset available this summer. Following Verizon’s launch of LTE this year, it expects to double the number of markets within fifteen months, and by the end of 2013 its entire footprint will be covered by the next-generation technology. Interestingly, the WSJ interview noted comments from Melone where he reiterated the idea that today’s ‘all-you-can-eat’ data packages will have to be rethought for LTE. ♠ JC
Source: GSMA
