Verizon announces move to LTE technology

We originally heard about this story in September, but Verizon made the announcement yesterday. They have chosen Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology for their 4G network. This isn’t something to worry about immediately, but Jupiter Research estimates that 24 million people will be using that technology by 2012. Testing, though, will begin next year.

Partnering with Verizon to provide the technology are Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia, and Nortel, the latter of which works with Verizon’s EVDO (3G) network.

“4G is all about the user experience, allowing not only mobile video, music, and gaming, but also a whole lot of new connections in our cameras, our cars, and even our home appliances. With consumers eager to take advantage of all these possibilities, the network will experience significant increases in bandwidth demand,” said Richard Lowe, president of carrier networks at Nortel, in an e-mail.

We can see it now. Start your cold car from your warm living room (the range figures to beat out remote starters), and preheat the oven while you drive home.

“A number of factors are setting the stage for our 4G network migration; most importantly, our view of customers’ evolving appetite for more information, entertainment, and functionality, combined with an increasing customer expectation for easy access, high speed, easy handling, and seamless mobility. With a host of new devices and applications, and a particular focus on embedded wireless in virtually every piece of electronics you buy in any store, we believe LTE is the best technology with global scale to deliver on the promise,” said Richard Lynch, Verizon’s executive VP and CTO, said in a statement.

The added benefit here is that Vodafone is making this upgrade to its European network as well, which should allow for American subscribers to roam on its network, and vice versa. Currently, Vodafone runs GSM, while Verizon uses CDMA.

[Information Week]

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