Verizon 4G, “On Track”
Verizon Wireless is on track to launch its 4G phone service in 25 – 30 coverage areas next year, says Verizon vice president and chief technology officer, Tony Melone.
Speaking at the LTE Americas 2009 Conference, he said the company was aware of doubts they would achieve the plan from within the mobile industry but said Verizon’s 4G plan was, “exactly where we expected (it) to be at this time. We fully expect to meet our deployment plan.”
Verizon Wireless expects to fully cover its nationwide 3G coverage area with 4G by the end of 2013 – meaning it will reach around 95% of the US population.
Norway 4G Network Will Be Built by China
Norway’s Telenor 4G phone network will be built by China’s Huawei. The deal is the biggest so far in 4G / LTE technology in Europe and is said to be worth $175 million / €118 million over the next five years.
The new network will replace technology currently in place by Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks.
Ragnar Kårhus, CEO of Telenor Norway, said, “This is the biggest upgrade of the mobile network in Norway we have ever carried out. It will create a solid base for further developing the services offered by the Telenor mobile network and the quality of those services. Our main aim is to provide customers with better, more innovative services across the country. This means better in terms of capacity, speed and stability.”.
Alcatel-Lucent: 4G in Germany by end of 2010
Alcatel-Lucent, which has a 4G testing station setup in Stuttgart, Germany to demo LTE mobile solutions to European phone operators, is pleased with the initial results. That’s according to Erich Zielinski, Alcatel-Lucent’s chief for end-to-end 4G solutions, reported in Telecompaper.
Zielinski also predicts the first LTE services to be available in Germany by the end of 2010.
4G Mobile Cloud Platform
Funambol has introduced a 4G mobile cloud platform for device management and synchronization. The platform, which is open source, allows the management of business networks, email systems and data used and shared by mobile internet devices over 4G WiMAX and LTE networks.
The company says it’s working with some of biggest names in the mobile industry to launch new 4G mobile cloud sync services over the coming months.
Altair: 4G Modem Coming This November
Mobile manufacturer Altair Semiconductor says it will release its first 4G / LTE data modem this November.
The company predicts that 4G cell phones will start appearing in the marketplace in late 2010, with “millions of units” in use by 2010.
UK 4G Coming
UK mobile phone operator O2 is expecting have a test 4G mobile network running by the summer of 2010.
The parent company of O2, Telefonica, has already announced 4G tests for the UK and five other countries of the next generation of mobile broadband technology.
The LTE trials will be the first carried out by any UK mobile phone operator – although Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone have said they intend to roll out 4G networks in the future.
Nokia Helps Austria Go 4G
Nokia Siemens has won a contract to upgrade Austria’s Hutchinson mobile network from 3G to 4G. The upgrade is expected to begin later this year and will initially be made to HSPA+ speed.
A full upgrade to a 4G / LTE mobile network is expected to happen in 2011.
4G Tests: UK, Spain, Germany, Czech Republic, Brazil & Argentina
Spain’s mobile phone giant Telefonica is about to launch 4G network tests in six countries as a prelude to launching full data networks. In addition to Telefonica’s home country of Spain, – the UK, Germany, Czech Republic, Brazil and Argentina will take part in the LTE testing.
Earlier this year Telefonica demoed a 4G VoIP call over a LTE network as well as data & image downloads of over 140mbps.
