14 DAY TRIAL // According to the latest news on the Web, Verizon Wireless has recently made available the initial set of technical specifications for devices that will use its upcoming fourth-generation Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless network. The specs are meant to offer guidelines for access and data transport on LTE devices.
The new announcement is another step the company is taking towards the roll-out of its LTE network, which is expected to become commercially available in 2010, as the mobile phone carrier announced back in February. Currently, the company already conducts field trials in Minneapolis, Columbus and New Jersey.
In addition, Verizon Communication's CEO Ivan Seidenberg stated in a recent interview that the company considered it had a solid footing in the U.S., and that it intended to expand its business outside the country. According to him, Verizon will work on leveraging its enterprise-level business, yet it is not interested in entering the wireless retail business in other countries. Another noteworthy affirmation he made was that the company was interested in acquiring Vodafone's share in Verizon Wireless and becoming the 100% owner of the carrier.
Seidenberg said not only that the company would like to purchase the 45 percent share Vodafone had in Verizon Wireless, but also that he thought that Apple would be happy to work with Verizon in the future on an LTE-compatible version of the iPhone. In addition, he also stated that Apple hadn't worked on the development of a CDMA version of the iPhone due to the fact that the technology had more limited distribution footprint.
The next-generation LTE technology has attracted a lot of industry players lately, and more are expected to join forces for the deployment of compliant networks and for the launch of LTE-based handsets in the near future, which means that Apple might not be too far from the move either. It is rather uncertain whether the company will team with Verizon for the launch of such a handset, or continue its partnership with AT&T in this direction. Until more details become available, you can check out Verizon's LTE guidelines here.