Will roll out networks this year

Feb 16, 2010 20:01 GMT  ·  By

Leading mobile industry companies China Telecom, KDDI and Verizon Wireless announced on Monday at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that they joined the GSMA following plans on deploying commercial services based on Long-Term Evolution (LTE). The three companies are among the largest CDMA operators in the world, and their objective is to roll out LTE networks during the ongoing year. The LTE technology should deliver high-speed services to more than 150 million customers in the following three years when combined with the footprint of these operators.

“With its compelling, high-speed and cost-effective network architecture, LTE is bringing the GSM and CDMA communities together. We are delighted that China Telecom, KDDI, and Verizon Wireless have joined the GSMA along with Qualcomm, and will be among the first operators to launch commercial LTE services,” said Alex Sinclair, Chief Technology and Strategy Officer at the GSMA. “The rapid rise in demand for Mobile Broadband devices, applications and services is driving both GSM and CDMA operators to evolve their network infrastructures and embrace new, cutting-edge technologies, and LTE is widely regarded as ‘the’ Mobile Broadband technology that will be adopted by the vast majority of mobile operators globally.”

The LTE technology is expected to outperform most of the fixed-line broadband networks available around the world at the moment, as it can provide peak rate speeds of up to 100Mbs downlink and 50Mbs uplink. The technology has been developed so as to increase the bandwidth available over mobile networks, while also being capable of reducing latency. Moreover, the standard is also compatible with GPRS, WCDMA and HSPA technologies, offering carriers the possibility to come up with seamless service and multi-mode devices for customers. A number of 74 mobile operators globally have already announced plans to deploy LTE, and the first networks will be fired up during the ongoing year.

The first LTE network has already been rolled out in Sweden by TeliaSonera, and NTT DoCoMo in Japan. China Telecom and Verizon Wireless are set to deploy their solutions before the end of the ongoing year. Dick Lynch, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Verizon, stated, “In the one year since Verizon Wireless first announced our LTE plans here at Mobile World Congress, LTE has quickly become the global technology choice for 4G. We’re proud of that global leadership, and believe our work will advance by aligning with the GSMA’s mission and members to advance LTE throughout the globe.”