Vodafone and Verizon Wireless are working towards adopting Long-Term Evolution, reports Unstrung.
Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin and Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg both told a Goldman Sachs investor conference Wednesday that they are planning to use the same technology in the next major evolution of their wireless networks, and that the two companies are involved in LTE development work, reports Unstrung.
Vodafone owns a 45 percent stake in Verizon Wireless (the rest is owned by Verizon Communications), yet the two mobile giants currently use different network technology. Verizon Wireless currently has more than 62 million subscribers, while Vodafone has more than 200 million customers around the world.
Vodafone is a GSM operator that has built out its 3G network using HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) technology. Verizon Wireless is a CDMA operator using CDMA EV-DO (Evolution Data Optimized) Revision A technology.
HSPA and EV-DO are not compatible. Subscribers can’t roam onto each others’ networks and the two companies can’t share economies of scale.
LTE (wikipedia) has been developed to provide a migration path from GSM to HSPA, but it could also be used by EV-DO operators. Qualcomm is pushing their own Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB) standard for CDMA operators, also called Rev. C on the CDMA network-upgrade path. It’s being developed by the CDMA standards group, 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2).
Reuters reports Sarin as saying: “It makes complete sense for us to go from HSDPA to LTE and it makes sense for Verizon to go from EV-DO to LTE.” Sarin added that it would be another three or four years before LTE could be deployed.
Experts say it’ll be 2009 before LTE networks become commercial while Qualcomm’s favored technology UMB, geared toward CDMA operators, has yet to make it out of the lab. Now, with big CDMA operators like Sprint rejecting UMB (for Mobile WiMAX), and Verizon Wireless spurning UMB (for LTE), that technology may have a shrinking the pool of potential operator adopters.
Upgrading Verizon to the new standard won’t be easy. It will involve a forklift upgrade and new handsets. Mobile WiMAX, on the other hand, is being offered by Sprint this year.
Clearwire plans to offer Mobile WiMAX in Portland, Oregon next year, chief technology officer John Saw said at Intel’s Developer Forum in San Francisco on Wednesday. It will be available over a 700-square-mile area that spans Portland and most of the rest of the metro area.
Scott Richardson, Clearwire’s Chief Strategy Officer, said 4 months ago they expect to deploy mobile WiMAX in the first half of next year, subject to equipment being available. Seattle’s Clearwire service is considered portable, not mobile, since the network has not been using true Mobile WiMAX gear.
Mobile WiMAX chip providers Beceem and Sequans announced field trials with their production of low-power WiMAX chipsets exceeding 30 Mb/s. It uses Time Division in a 10 MHz channel in the 2.5 GHz band. HSPA, by contrast, tops out at 14.4 Mb/s over the same amount of spectrum (5Mhz x 2).
Both LTE and WiMAX have aspirations to deliver 100 Mbps. But 100 Mbps WiMAX 802.16m is expected to be backward compatible with today’s Mobile WiMax (system requirements).
LTE means new everything — and a 5 year wait.
LTE would be AT&T’s natural progression from GSM. With their BellSouth merger, AT&T has the capacity for expanding HSPA service. AT&T is running Alvarion fixed WiMAX gear for broadband access in Alaska and has trialed pre-certified equipment in Atlanta. AT&T may be looking for in-fill technologies to bring broadband to rural areas — but AT&T would likely need dedicated WiMAX frequencies if they were serious about it.
Vodafone, the world’s largest mobile carrier, signed up to be a principal member of the WiMAX Forum in August. Steve Pusey, Global Chief Technology Officer, Vodafone, said at the time; “Vodafone remains technology neutral as far as our future network options are concerned, and joining the WiMAX Forum is a logical step as we seek to evaluate the full capabilities and potential of this technology.” The WiMAX Forum now has more than 500 members.
Intel and Sprint like Mobile WiMAX, of course. They plan to move desktop power into handsets and other small devices next year (see video above).
Some analysts believe Verizon’s adoption of LTE will become even more likely if it manages to secure the 2×11 MHz C Block of spectrum in the upcoming 700 MHz auctions. Chief analyst of the Unstrung Insider, Gabriel Brown, believes Verizon could start deploying LTE infrastructure “from 2010/2011 onwards… comfortably within the FCC’s rollout deadlines attached to the 700 MHz licenses.”
Meanwhile, USA Today says cities are turning off plans for Wi-Fi. But the Portland MetroFi connection that I’ve used to post ALL DailyWireless stories for the last few weeks is free and (mostly) reliable.
It’s a tough value proposition to beat.
Related WiMAX articles on DailyWireless include; Civil War in 4G, Battle for “4G”, 3G Congress Talks Back, 3GSM World Congress, Mobile WiMAX PlugFest, Clearwire Gets Carded, Qualcomm Talks Up Rev. B & C, Jacobs: WiMAX is Crap, Mobile WiMAX – The Next Iridium?, NTT “Super 3G”, Frontline: Rumble in the Jungle, Sprint’s Barry West, Sprint’s WiMAX Cities, Nortel: WiMAX Train Leaving Station, Carriers Test “Real” 4G, Will Consumers Prefer WiMAX?, Sprint: It’s WiMAX! and Mobile WiMax: It’s Done.
