Hell freezes over: Verizon CTO Dick Lynch joins GSMA's board
By Chris Ziegler 
posted June 21st 2010 4:38PM
posted June 21st 2010 4:38PM
Of course, seeing how Verizon was one of the earliest and most staunch supporters of LTE in the mobile operator world, it comes as no huge shocker that Big Red has earned itself a seat on the GSM Association's 26 member- and 13 carrier-strong board of directors -- especially now that it's a full, card-carrying member of the GSMA as a whole -- but still, feels a bit weird, doesn't it? From a PR perspective, we're figuring Verizon wanted to have this wrapped up before it stages its first commercial 4G launches later this year, but at any rate, it's official: you're now welcome to call Verizon "a GSM carrier. What about you, Sprint? Follow the break for the full press release. Verizon EVP and CTO Dick Lynch Appointed to GSMA Board
21 June 2010, London: The GSMA today announced that Dick Lynch, EVP and CTO of Verizon, a leading telecommunications operator in the U.S., has been appointed to the GSMA's Board. Lynch's appointment follows Verizon gaining full membership to the GSMA as a result of its commitment to deploy commercial services based on Long-Term Evolution (LTE), the next-generation technology for Mobile Broadband and part of the GSM family of technologies, in 2010.
"We are delighted to welcome Dick and Verizon to the GSMA Board," said Rob Conway, CEO and Member of the Board of the GSMA. "A leader in the worldwide mobile communications industry through its delivery of innovative new services and as an early adopter of advanced technologies such as LTE, Verizon brings additional depth and experience to the GSMA Board. Dick's expertise and leadership will be a tremendous asset as we work to identify and capitalise on new opportunities for our industry."
Lynch, who has nearly 40 years experience in the mobile communications industry, said: "It is an honour to serve on the GSMA board. I expect that our new relationships with the broad global family of wireless companies will bring benefits to the American marketplace. This collaboration and outreach is significant as we build a full ecosystem around LTE, bringing together partners to build and grow our network, design new products, and put together the incredible new services that will make our lives better."
Under Lynch's leadership, Verizon Wireless* is on track to deploy LTE commercially in 25 to 30 markets across the US this year. The number of markets is expected to double within 15 months of the initial launch, and by the end of 2013, Verizon's entire 3G footprint, covering 285 million Americans, is expected to be covered by the next-generation Mobile Broadband technology. Verizon Wireless is simultaneously working with other companies serving less-populated areas to bring the benefits of a coordinated LTE service to rural Americans quickly.
More than 100 operators from around the world have so far committed to plans, trials or deployments for LTE. The world's first commercial LTE network was launched in Sweden in 2009 by TeliaSonera, with NTT DoCoMo and China Telecom on track to join Verizon Wireless in deploying commercial LTE services by the end of this year. LTE is expected to experience substantial growth over the coming years with Infonetics Research predicting the number of global LTE connections to exceed 72 million by 2013**.
The GSMA Board consists of thirteen of the largest operator groups in the world and twelve other operator members that are nominated to reflect the needs of smaller, independent organisations within the mobile industry and to ensure global representation. Members include America Movil, AT&T, Axiata, Bharti Airtel, China Mobile, China Unicom, France Telecom, Hutchison Whampoa, KT Corporation, MTN, MTS, NTT DoCoMo, Orascom Telecom, Singapore Telecom, SK Telecom, Smart, Softbank, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Telekom Austria, Telenor, T-Mobile International, Verizon, VimpelCom and Vodafone.
Verizon FTW!!!!
OMG HE JOINED! RUN EVERYONE RUN!!!
When Caesar said "et" he meant "even" in Latin, not "and."
@PresidentObama Agreed. That was misused. The closest would be "Et toi, Sprint?" in French.
@PresidentObama Point taken. Changing!
@Chris Ziegler
You could always say "et tu, Verizon" where CDMA or Qualcomm is Caesar.
With Verizon in the GSMA, how long until all GSM carriers start whitelisting phones so you can put your SIM into unbranded phones or unlocked phones from other carriers?
looks like luke and at&ts famous talk and surfing edge just went out the window
Of course, ironically, LTE is actually a CDMA technology...
@qnetter WRONG!
@Edgeknight "LTE is a set of enhancements to the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) which was introduced in 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Release 8." ... "Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is one of the third-generation (3G) mobile telecommunications technologies, which is also being developed into a 4G technology. The first deployment of the UMTS is the release99 (R99) architecture. It is specified by 3GPP and is part of the global ITU IMT-2000 standard. The most common form of UMTS uses W-CDMA (IMT Direct Spread) as the underlying air interface but the system also covers TD-CDMA and TD-SCDMA (both IMT CDMA TDD)."
I know why they went with LTE. They figured they couldn't keep up this "Arms Race" and they need to share the Tower build out, it helps them in the long run, to share towers with other providers.
People are forgetting that Verizon is still a CDMA carrier. Also, LTE is a 3GPP/2 partnership, so it's not exclusively CDMA or GSM. Would I love to see Verizon switch to GSM? Absolutely! Will it happen, now that they are part of GSMA? Not likely. So, this talk of GSM carriers making changes or at&t's talk-n-surf being a moot point is not really warranted. Verizon's not going GSM, they just joined GSMA's board.
@aschettler
im pretty sure with LTE you can talk and surf the web at the same time. thus at&t does loose its "major" selling point.
@HTCAndroidTre I will grant you that. LTE _will_ allow you to talk and surf at the same time, when LTE is released. This will never occur for CDMA itself, though, and you will not be able to talk and surf over LTE until the final VoLTE spec is released. That will likely cause more battery drain due to the fact that you would be using two technologies at once.
@HTCAndroidTre I can already talk and surf on my moto droid...can't all smartphones do this??
@Mchlls79 It's not just talking and surfing. It's talking and surfing at the same time. If I wanted to look something up while I'm talking to my friend, I could do that on my 3G GSM phone. CDMA users can't do this.
@aschettler
CDMA will once VoRA is finalized.
And let's not forget that AT&T's "talk&surf" footprint is VERY limited. Once you're on EDGE, sorry Charlie...
@NKTizzle First I've heard of VoRA. Finally, CDMA will be able to do what UMTS/HSPA has been able to do for several years.
On a side note... I can't believe people are still commenting on this!
@aschettler
It's being tested right now. I'm not sure when they plan to roll it out. This is one of the reasons why I don't think it's that absurd that VZW could be getting the iPhone, not to mention giving other devices the same wonderment.
My .02 is that it will either be a LTE/EVDO hybrid phone with VoRA for voice and LTE for data, or an all VoRA phone. Then once VZW has the majority of it's LTE network completed by EYO 2011 Apple will roll out an upgraded phone (ala iPhone 3G).
With them becoming a GSM carrier now, the iPhone is more likely to be carried on their network. I don't see apple making a CDMA version of the iPhone... but now this... this is big. So for me, it looks like verizon and t-mobile will be getting the iPhone when AT&T's contract is up.
@stefen1990
i mean, IF they become a GSM carrier.....
@stefen1990
They aren't becoming a GSM carrier, least they haven't said that. I doubt this will replace their hardware to GSM since GSM may be going away and they are the largest providers already in the US. Why replace what is already working?
I think this only means they are working more closely with others who use GSM that are moving to LTE.
Am i the only one that read the article and has no freaken idea what it means or the actual significance of it?
Well I guess that's good news, I hope this means they'll be coming out with more phone having GSM.
Ok I do have a valid question. If they are going to remain a CDMA carrier, whats the point of even joining the GSMA. I mean seriously. It IS strange, but I would like to understand.
im assumimg preperation for a Viphone
Verizon still isn't and probably would never be a GSM carrier. Being on this board and going to LTE doesn't mean you are a GSM carrier.