LTE News

Sprint bringing 4G wireless to Boston

awardnews — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 21:53:00 GMT

Bostonians who rely on telephone and cable TV companies for their high-speed Internet service will soon have a third option. Sometime next month, cellphone carrier Sprint Nextel Corp. will launch the region's first 4G wireless data service, designed to deliver broadband speeds far faster than today's 3G services. The new service, already available in about 50 US cities, can bring the Internet to desktop and laptop computers as well as Sprint's smartphones.

"We should launch sometime during the month of September,'' said Sprint chief executive Dan Hesse during a visit to Boston last week. Sprint's first 4G-compatible smartphone, the EVO 4G, is already sold out at stores throughout the United States; a second phone, the Epic 4G, will go on sale Aug. 31.

Existing 3G services, made popular by the success of Apple Inc.'s iPhone, enable users to visit websites and download music and videos. Although mainly used with smartphones, many laptops also use 3G Internet access. But 3G download speeds are relatively slow, usually around 1.5 million bits per second; that's adequate for reading Web pages, but sluggish for video or gaming. Sprint's 4G network is designed to deliver speeds ranging from 3 million to 6 million bits per second.

The network is being built by Clearwire Corp. of Kirkland, Wash. Sprint owns 54 percent of Clearwire; other major investors include cable TV giant Comcast Corp., chip maker Intel Corp., and Internet search giant Google Corp. Clearwire is expected to activate its Greater Boston network in September and begin marketing its 4G data service under the brand name Clear.

"We're here to set the pace in wireless mobility,'' said Matthew Drinkhahn, Clearwire's general manager in Boston. The Clear mobile service will cost $55 a month, plus $5.99 a month for use of a device for connecting a laptop to the network. Clear will also be marketed to home Internet users as an alternative to broadband service from telephone or cable TV companies for $40 a month, plus $4.99 a month for use of a wireless modem.

Sprint will officially begin offering 4G service sometime after the Clear service launches. But Hesse said that since Sprint and Clear share the same 4G network, owners of 4G-compatible Sprint phones will get 4G access as soon as Clear goes on the air.

Comcast spokeswoman Doreen Vigue said her company will sell Clear "in the coming weeks'' to cable customers who want mobile broadband service.

Charles Golvin, principal analyst at Forrester Research in Los Angeles, predicted that few home Internet users would abandon their current service for Clear. "They're not going to be willing to switch absent a significant price difference, which there is not,'' Golvin said, adding that he didn't expect a huge demand for Sprint's 4G service at first because 3G is good enough for most smartphone users.

Still, Golvin said that 3G caught on because of attractive software apps on Apple's iPhone. He predicted a similar surge of interest in 4G if developers write appealing programs that take advantage of the network's greater speed.

Sprint's 4G network should have company soon. Both Verizon Wireless and low-cost carrier MetroPCS plan to launch similar services in Boston before year's end.

Original Source: Hiawatha Bray, Boston Globe at http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2010/08/24/4g_wireless_coming_to_boston_in_september/

Samsung Looking for Android-on-LTE Expertise

awardnews — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 16:57:00 GMT

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (Korea: SEC) wants to increase its LTE-on-Android talent pool as it develops pre-4G devices for a US launch.

The firm is advertising for an LTE RIL Engineer to work closely with its other Android product development engineers. A radio interface layer (RIL) engineer would be working on connecting the Android OS with the LTE radio in the phone.

The location of the position -- in Bridgewater, N.J. -- is also interesting. This means that the right candidate could also work closely with Verizon Wireless in Basking Ridge, N.J., as the operator rolls out LTE in up to 30 cities in the US by the end of the year.

Samsung has already said that it will deliver the first LTE-capable smartphone for MetroPCS Inc. (NYSE: PCS) in the second half of this year. [Ed note: You'll pretty much only be able to use the LTE in Vegas initially, but hey, that means you're in Vegas!] (See MetroPCS Gears Up for LTE.)

Samsung is already becoming an early leader in proto-4G devices. The firm has LTE modems for TeliaSonera AB (Nasdaq: TLSN) as well as the upcoming MetroPCS smartphone. Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S), meanwhile, just unveiled the Android-based Samsung Epic, its second 3G smartphone that supports WiMax. (See Sprint Intros Samsung Epic 4G.)

Samsung started its push with Android devices in the US at the end of June with introduction of its Galaxy S range of smartphones. It is widely expected that Samsung will be one of the first to deliver LTE devices, some of which may be based on Android, to Verizon. In fact, The Boy Genius Report says that a leaked LTE roadmap suggests Verizon is working with Samsung on an Android tablet, among other things. The carrier has already used test devices from the vendor in LTE trials in Boston and Seattle. (See Samsung's US Galaxy Quest and Samsung Shares Apple Core.)

Original Source: Dan Jones, Light Reading Mobile at http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=195940&

Counting Down to LTE

awardnews — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 19:08:00 GMT

Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks are now just months away from going live in the USA, so let's run down what you can expect in the way of this proto-4G technology in the coming year.

MetroPCS
MetroPCS Inc. (NYSE: PCS) has previously claimed that it will have "the first LTE wireless network featuring smartphones" in the US. The operator plans to launch in the "second half of this year." It hopes to have a smartphone that supports both CDMA and LTE ready for the network. So far, the operator has only said for sure that it will be launching in Las Vegas, although other unspecified markets are on the roadmap.

Verizon Wireless
Verizon Wireless reiterated on its second-quarter earnings call Friday that it is on track to launch what will be the largest initial deployment of LTE in the US sometime in the fourth quarter. The deployment is expected to cover some 25 to 30 cities with average data download speeds of between 5 and 12 Mbit/s by the end of 2010. In fact, Engadget is suggesting that November 15 might now actually be the launch date. (See CTIA 2010: Verizon LTE Gets Friendly.)

The operator is planning to launch with data cards and LTE modems. Smartphones, however, should be available by the first half of 2011. (See CTIA 2010: The LTE Smartphone Scramble.)

LTE might also move away from unlimited data plans for Verizon: "We have indicated in the past, as we move to an LTE world and LTE pricing, we will probably look very hard at tiered pricing, and that continues to be our thinking right now," CFO Joe Killian said on Friday's call. (See Verizon Likes Its Droids.)

AT&T
AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) CFO Rick Lindner said this week that the operator is readying LTE test markets now. "We plan to begin our trials of LTE in the next few months and will start commercial service in 2011," he said on the operator's second-quarter call this week. Very little is yet known about what markets AT&T will initially launch in or what kind of devices it plans to offer.

LightSquared

The dark horse of early LTE providers, it emerged this week that LightSquared , which is a Harbinger Capital Partners LP venture, wants to launch LTE markets in the second half of next year. The operation is little different from other carriers, as it plans to use a combination of satellite and terrestrial broadband spectrum to launch wholesale services to sell to other operators. LightSquared will launch trial LTE networks in the first half of next year in Denver, Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Baltimore. (See Harbinger Hatches LTE Challenger in US.)

Original Source: Dan Jones, Site Editor, Light Reading Mobile at http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=194847&f_src=lightreading_gnews

Nokia Siemens Networks to supply LTE for LightSquared

awardnews — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 21:57:00 GMT

Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), a 50-50 joint venture between Nokia Corp. (NOK - Analyst Report) and Siemens AG (SI - Analyst Report), won an eight year contract from LightSquared. The deal is worth more than $7 billion. This is closely followed by NSN's announcement just a day before to buy Motorola Inc.'s (MOT - Analyst Report) network-equipment business unit for $1.2 billion in cash.

As per the terms of the contact, Nokia Siemens will install and maintain a new U.S. 4G LTE mobile broadband network with around 40,000 base stations that will cover 92% of the U.S. population by 2015.

LightSquared is a new telecom network venture launched by New York-based hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners. Nokia Siemens plans to use its remote network operations centre in India extensively to manage the new network.

In the past, NSN has already received some contracts for supplying LTE equipments to AT&T (T - Analyst Report) and T-mobile U.S. With the acquisition of the Motorola's unit, NSN will become the third largest telecom network solutions provider in the U.S., after L.M. Ericsson AB (ERIC - Analyst Report) and Alcatel-LucentALU - Analyst Report).

Industry sources estimate that by far this over $7 billion contract is the single largest contract in the global wireless gear manufacturing industry. From early 2010, NSN has taken several steps to improve its financials. This helped the company to win 15 LTE contacts throughout the world. Notable among them are TeliaSonera AB, (NTT DoCoMo (DCM - Analyst Report) and Shaw Communications Inc. (SJR - Analyst Report).

This contract win together with NSN's proposed acquisition of Motorola's wireless infrastructure assets will significantly boost its presence in the lucrative U.S. market, which accounted for more than 40% of the $82 billion global wireless network infrastructure business.

Source: Zacks Equity Research (http://www.zacks.com/stock/news/37260/NSN+Wins+$7+Billion+Contract)

Award Solutions is a 4G World Training Sponsor

awardnews — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 19:12:00 GMT

4G World is the first and only conference and expo covering the entire ecosystem of next-generation technologies that enable the mobile Internet revolution including mobile network infrastructure, advanced devices, applications and content. 4G World delivers a world-class comprehensive four-day conference program that highlights the rapidly evolving interdependencies between operator business models, mobile network technology and architecture, and mobile Internet applications and services.

Award Solutions, Inc. provides exceptional training in advanced wireless and Internet technologies and is excited to announce that we will be running the following courses in partnership with Yankee Group, the organizers of 4G World:

- LTE Technology Overview: October 18-19, 2010
- LTE-Advanced: October 20, 2010
- Ethernet Backhaul Essentials: October 21, 2010

Detailed course outlines along with prices and registration for these courses are available at the 4G World website: 4gworld.com. Register before June 25th to qualify for the Early Bird discount.

Award Solutions, Inc. provides training and consulting in advanced wireless and Internet technologies such as UMTS LTE, GSM/GPRS/EDGE, 1xEV-DO, WiMAX, and IP. We provide clients with innovative, cost-effective solutions that rapidly boost workforce productivity and competence, to more quickly meet their market demands.

The training and consulting solutions delivered by Award have proven successful for telecommunications and Internet equipment manufacturers, service providers, and management consulting firms since 1997.

Award Solutions Speaker at LTE Forum 2010

awardnews — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 15:45:00 GMT

Award Solutions' Senior Consultant John McKeague will be speaking at the pre-conference workshop LTE Essentials at the LTE Forum on Tuesday, April 27, 2010 in Stockholm, Sweden.

Join HanseCom Media and Communications and LTE Forum 2010 at this one-day workshop, which provides a comprehensive high-level view of LTE and is intended for those in sales, marketing, product line management, and executives who need to understand LTE and its place in the 4G wireless landscape.

The LTE Essentials workshop provides an overview of LTE from both application and technical aspects, including the network architecture, the underlying technologies of OFDM and multiple antenna techniques, and the call setup procedure. In addition, deployment and interworking issues are explored along with the competitive landscape by comparing features and services with other 4G systems such as WiMAX.

As an Award Solutions representative, John McKeague will also be leading as a panel moderator on LTE Performance Expectations, with discussions in performance assessments in LTE and an outlook into LTE-Advanced, voice over LTE, and SMS and voice services on LTE on Wednesday April 28, 2010 in the late afternoon session.

LTE Forum 2010 will help operators identify the evolutionary steps to 4G LTE, understand the drivers for migrating, and determine what they need to do to ensure their network remains competitive. The conference will bring together operators, vendors, end-users, regulators, experts, analysts and the media to discuss, debate, and discover trends and strategies of the Next Generation Mobile technology, the most crucial industry challenges facing LTE.

For more information about LTE Forum 2010, visit www.lteforum2010.com.

About Award

Award Solutions, Inc. provides training and consulting in advanced wireless and Internet technologies such as LTE, UMTS/HSPA/HSPA+, GSM/GPRS/EDGE, 1xEV-DO, WiMAX, and IP. We provide clients with innovative, cost-effective solutions that rapidly boost workforce productivity and competence to more quickly meet market demands.

For additional information, please visit our website at www.awardsolutions.com or call us toll-free at +1.972.664.0727.

About HanseCom

HanseCom Media & Communication is a leading IT and Telecom conference organizer that has earned a reputation of excellence, specializing in specific themes pertaining to the Information Technology community. Led by an experienced management team headquartered in Porto, the company was established in Portugal in 2004.

Our conferences provide not only valuable updated information, but also insight on how a given technology is likely to pan out in the future. In this way, a HanseCom event is often an interface between research and industry. It is an excellent occasion for bringing together these two worlds and ensuring an extremely strong networking opportunity for delegates and speakers.

LTE Forum 2010 to Take Place in Stockholm Home of the First Commercial 4G/LTE Network Worldwide

awardnews — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 21:05:00 GMT

	NewswireToday - /newswire/ - Porto, Portugal, 03/16/2010 - Speakers include representatives of 3GPP, GSMA, Telenor and TeliaSonera and leading analysts of idate and Ventura team.

	The wireless business is undergoing a major shift from voice-driven to data-driven services. Studies indicate that data revenue has grown by more than 30% per year, whereas voice revenue grew by just 4%. When mobile phones became popular, the 2G cellular networks they utilized did not provide enough bandwidth to support data-heavy applications. The wireless industry responded with 3G technologies to give greater bandwidth to enable more services, applications and wireless devices. 3G helped drive the adoption of data applications. Today, to meet the requirements for more bandwidth and richer applications, the mobile industry is responding with an exponentially faster 4G technology, so called Long Term Evolution (LTE) – an output of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). The LTE Forum 2010 will help operators to identify the evolutionary steps to 4G LTE, to understand the drivers for migrating, and to determine what they need to be doing now to ensure their network remains competitive. Presentations from mobile operators, analysts, regulators and other industry experts will help delegates to understand why, when and how to migrate to 4G LTE, and what they should be doing now to ensure their networks remain competitive into the future. The LTE Forum (lteforum2010.com) is scheduled to take place on 27th – 28th April 2010 in Stockholm, for more information and to register please visit the event website. The special focus of this conference covers critical areas for LTE migration: - Session 1 “The LTE Business Environment” - Chairman: Frédéric Pujol, Mobile Broadband Practice Manager, Idate. - Session 2 “LTE Deployment, the infrastructure supplier’s perspective” - Chairman: Hans Kuropatwa, Partner, Ventura Team. - Session 3 “LTE Business Models” - Chairman: Alan Hadden, President, GSA. - Session 4 “LTE Performance expectations” - Chairman: John McKeague, Sr Technical Consultant, Award Solutions. The LTE Forum 2010 brings operators, vendors, end-users, regulators, experts, analysts and the media together to discuss, debate, and discover trends and strategies of the Next Generation Mobile technology, the most crucial industry challenges facing LTE. The Speakers list of the LTE Forum 2010 in Stockholm/Sweden include: - Randall Schwartz, Wireless 20/20, Founder; - Alan Hadden, GSA, President; - Hans Kuropatwa, Ventura Team, Partner; - Hassan Claussen, Hansecom, Founder & CEO; - Xiaodong Zhu, ZTE, CTO of ZTE Western European Marketing Platform; - Richard Savage, Qualcomm, Director Business Development; - Sami Jokinen, Nokia, Senior Manager in Nokia Devices R&D; - Martin Ljungberg, Ericsson, Product Manager, Mobile Broadband, Business Unit Networks; - Hanna Maurer Sibley, LTE/SAE Trial Initiative (LSTI), Member of Steering Group; - Luc Beylkens, Alcatel-Lucent; - Kevin Holley, 3GPP, 3GPP SA Vice-Chairman; - Mats Lundbaeck, TeliaSonera, Director of Mobile Network Architecture and Strategies; - Meik Kottkamp, Rohde & Schwarz, Technology Manager, Test & Measurement Division; - Rune Harald Rakken, Telenor, Telenor Group Business Development and Research; - Dan Warren, GSM Association, Director of Technology; - John McKeague, Award Solutions EMEA, Sr Technical Consultant; - Frederic Pujol, Idate, Head of the radio technology and spectrum practice. About HanseCom HanseCom Media & Communication is a business media company. The company, led by an experienced management team headquartered in Porto, was established in Portugal in 2004. HanseCom Media & Communication, a leading IT & Telecom conference organizer, has earned itself a reputation of excellence, specializing in specific themes, pertaining to the Information Technology community. Our conferences provide not only valuable updated information, but also insight on how a given technology is likely to pan out in the future. In this way, a HanseCom event is often an interface between research and industry. It is an excellent occasion for bringing together these two worlds and ensures an extremely strong networking opportunity for delegates and speakers alike. For more information about The LTE Forum 2010 Contact: Guy Redmill HanseCom Media and Communications T: +44 774 088 1279 Submitted by NeonDrum on behalf of HanseCom Media and Communications Nicky Denovan / T: +44 7747 017654.

Agilent, China University ink LTE R&D deal

awardnews — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 16:12:00 GMT

Agilent Technologies Inc. has partnered with China's Southeast University for R&D on 3GPP-LTE systems performance. The company is providing test instruments and funding for researching ways to obtain higher data rates and high-quality services with increased spectrum and power efficiency.

Mike Kawasaki, education programme manager at Agilent, said that the company sees the R&D collaboration with Southeast University as a continuation of Agilent's drive to be a key technology partner for innovative research in academia. "This collaboration enables Agilent to make a contribution to the future of wireless communication and gives the university access to our resources, empowering further success of scientists in academia," he said.

Even before the collaboration, Southeast University has used Agilent instruments to generate signals with different RF impairments, acquire signals with different RF impairments for modelling and measurement.

Wei Hong, project team leader who is also director of the State Key Laboratory of Millimeter Waves at Southeast University, elaborated that with the collaboration, the university is investigating credible measurement methods of RF circuits and sub-systems for 3GPP-LTE and analysing impacts of RF impairments on 3GPP-LTE systems. "We have achieved some interesting results with this collaboration and some of them will be published in academic journals. We hope to promote research and employments of 3GPP-LTE in China and the rest of world," Hong said.

The State Key Laboratory of Millimeter Waves in China focuses on the circuits and networks of microwave and millimeter wave, electromagnetic wave propagation, scattering and radiation, radio frequency and antennas techniques in wireless communication systems, and the subjects of the basic theory.

The collaboration is a result of Agilent's University Relations Program. The programme supports scientific work with universities worldwide through direct grants and collaborative research and by sponsoring undergraduate and graduate internship opportunities for students to gain practical work experience in technical and nontechnical disciplines.

Globalive picks Alcatel-Lucent for network deal

awardnews — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 19:00:00 GMT

Telecom equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent (ALU.N) has won a three-year contract to help build a nationwide wireless network for privately held Canadian startup Globalive Wireless.

Globalive, which is working on launching national wireless service, spent more than C$442 million ($405.5 million) on buying spectrum during a government auction held a year ago.

Under the deal, Paris-based Alcatel-Lucent will supply Globalive with its 3G radio access network, including radio network controllers, base stations and a flexible wireless network management system.

The companies said the network will be "LTE-ready" -- a reference to the "long term evolution" technology that is increasingly expected to become a big force in wireless telecom in the future.

Huawei Opens LTE Lab in Texas

awardnews — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 15:40:00 GMT

Huawei announced today the opening of a Long Term Evolution (LTE) laboratory in Richardson, Texas.

Initially established with prototype equipment in fall 2008, the facility has been upgraded to support commercial product releases for North America. The lab recently implemented Huawei’s first commercial LTE solution release targeted at operators in the U.S. and Canada.

The lab is equipped with Huawei’s SingleRAN DBS3900 eNobeB (which supports CDMA-LTE and UMTS/LTE dual mode operation), USN 9810 unified service node, UGW 9811 unified gateway, M2000 element management system and the latest version of commercial software.