GSM Association votes to support LTE

Chalk up another one for the LTE team, as it has yet another big proponent in the ever-raging 4G war. Not even two months after Verizon gave LTE the nod over WiMAX / UMB, the board of the GSM Association has now voted to support Long Term Evolution as the mobile broadband solution to follow HSPA. The GSMA also noted that it would be interfacing with other outfits / organizations that are developing LTE technology and begin work with the NGMN (Next Generation Mobile Networks) initiative. Furthermore, Rob Conway, the entity's CEO, reportedly called on the International Telecommunication Union to "ensure the industry wins the spectrum needed to offer mobile broadband." 'Course, we've already heard that things are shaping up nicely (in testing) for the standard, but winning over the GSMA is likely to incite some serious celebrating in the offices of LTE backers everywhere.

[xbit @ Nov 15th 2007 2:43PM]

Let me guess... Qualcomm own several LTE patents and they are going to be complete asses about it?

[Michael @ Nov 15th 2007 2:46PM]

Sounds like a pretty shoddy deal for Verizon. Soon they'll have handsets operating on Verizon's "old" CDMA/EV-DO network and newer handsets that must have an LTE chip to access the new network.

No thanks!

I'll stick with Sprint and look forward to WiMax in the future.

[ojfl @ Nov 15th 2007 5:24PM]

Michael,

I do not understand your comment. How is that different than Sprint having an 1x/EV-DO phone with a WiMAX chip?

[john @ Nov 15th 2007 5:59PM]

ojfl,

most likely, sprint wont have CDMA/1x/EVDO phones that also have a WiMAX chip. My understanding is that they'll have CDMA/1x/EVDO phones ... and WiMAX devices (with VOIP, is my guess).


Personally, this isn't really news. SSDD. We had 2 formats in the US before, we'll have 2 formats in the US in the future.

I'll look at LTE if Nokia releases an IT that uses it, otherwise, I'm almost certainly going to be on a WiMAX service when their WiMAX based IT comes out next year.

[Brian @ Nov 15th 2007 2:53PM]

In other news, RGF and SDH are working together on NGH to allow ERT to interoperate with FRQ. Everyone is excited because HUJ will enable faster KOU, and even XCGF (which everyone was surprised about).

[Chris @ Nov 15th 2007 3:02PM]

your acronym and initialism powers are not to be trifled with.

[Alexander @ Nov 15th 2007 4:20PM]

I THNK my BRN just EXPLD. In other NWS, I just SHT my PNTS. And I am BRD on a THR waiting for my IDIT coworkers to STFU.

Crap. that last one was a real one.

[akatsuki @ Nov 15th 2007 3:16PM]

Another format war. Great.

You would think year after year of this would make the carriers realize that they are just Qualcomm's tools in this never ending patent fight. If they want to ever get the kind of money the Japanese market gets, they need to unify the technology so that they don't have to waste as much money on rolling out the tech.

But instead we get this crap again. Guess I won't be buying a 4G handset for a while, while each player slowly builds out their own network (while still building out their 3G networks which aren't even near complete).

Which one is Europe using? Which one is Japan using? Since we don't build any of this crap ourselves and are a technological backwater, we should just use a prevailing standard for once.

[CB17 @ Nov 15th 2007 3:26PM]

Ummm.... GSM??

[ojfl @ Nov 15th 2007 5:31PM]

akatsuki,

Europe and its operators are heavily involved in the development of LTE so it is natural they would adopt it. Japan is a different story. DoCoMo uses FOMA which is a derivative of UMTS and SoftBank uses HSPA. These are likely then to migrate to LTE. KDDI currently uses EV-DO technology. I hope this helps.

[Frankenstein Black @ Nov 15th 2007 3:41PM]

So lets welcome Verizondafone to the GSM--->LTE fold. So from a global perspective who's left, what, Sprint and one or two of the SE Asian operators. Well, from a global perspective, this GSMA endorsement is a potential DEATH KISS for WiMax!

[john @ Nov 15th 2007 6:04PM]

Think so?

How many LTE devices will be on the market, globally, by the end of this year?

How many LTE devices will be on the market in the US by the end of next year?

WiMAX already has some inertia. LTE doesn't.

Even if you have some real (as opposed to purely fanboy) reason for disliking WiMAX, you only have to look at far as DOS/Windows (or the oft-mentioned VHS) to see that inferior technologies will win if they have the right amount of inertia.

[CB17 @ Nov 15th 2007 11:32PM]

@john

This isn't a format war. GSM carriers pick whatever the GSM association picks. LTE has been picked and that's the end of it.

[paul-engadget @ Nov 16th 2007 1:18PM]

this is not a win for the consumer - members of the GSM association are the mobile telephony operators and existing cellular handset makers who are busy fleecing their customers and ensuring that there's no alternative for mobile telephony apart from their own oligopoly.

the operators thus do not want any kind of standard that will interfere with it, such as wimax, which allows a whole new slew of competitors to jump into the market.

[PEZ @ Nov 15th 2007 7:00PM]

IF anyone went to the MIW conference, you may know that ITM will replace LTE. Suggenidewn.

[ojfl @ Nov 15th 2007 11:14PM]

PEZ,

care to explain?

[bk @ Nov 16th 2007 5:01PM]

JUST AND FYI - VERIZON WIRELESS is currently looking into testing both LTE, UMB and is even considering WiMAX. Since at the time LTE was really the only approve 4G wireless technology it seem like a sure bet, but now that UMB has been approve its a whole different deal. When these two different technologies hit the main stream Qualcomm, Nokia and who ever else will have Hybrid chips to support both so it wont really matter what a service provider rolls out.

[Zach @ Nov 15th 2007 7:18PM]

These threads about mobile standards always devolve into acronymistic hell.

[AlexS @ Nov 16th 2007 8:05AM]

This is good news, one step closer to having one format. No matter what 4G turns out to be there will have to be new equipment bought by the consumers, weather it be a 4G handset or a WiMax device or handset.

This would mean the progression path in the US would be:
ATT -> LTE
Verizon -> LTE
Tmobile -> LTE
Sprint -> WiMax
Alltel -> ? (My vote is LTE probably)

And any other carriers would probable switch to LTE as well just because the largest CDMA carrier switchs to LTE and most have roaming agreements with them anyway.

All in all much easier to move around carriers, and a much better chance at getting unlock handsets.