LTE: Operators reiterate commitment @ Mobile World Congress'10

Remmy Nweke in Barcelona, Spain

Following the acceptance of the Long Term Evolution (LTE) by global telecom operators, more and more operators have continued to pledge commitment to the latest technology.

Lately, LTE is known as a project name for the high performance air interface for cellular mobile communication systems and is anticipated to be the last measure toward the 4th Generation (4G) of radio technologies designed to increase the capacity and speed of mobile telephone networks.

In addition it’s reputed as 4G in some markets within the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) sector, hence operators are expected to convert current networks to LTE so as to be compliant and enthrone the next-generation wireless technology to customers.

Although experts at Infonetics Research in 2009 speculated that LTE is expected to experience substantial growth over the next three years with global connections to exceed 72 million by 2013. As at last December, the LTE services were opened by TeliaSonera in the two Scandinavian capitals Stockholm and Oslo.

Meanwhile at the ongoing Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, China Telecom, KDDI and Verizon Wireless have reiterated their commitment to heed the worldwide operators’ assembly invitation under the Global System for Mobile Association (GSMA) for network owners to deploy LTE.

Equally Qualcomm joined the fray as associate member, dangling the smooth integration of LTE with today’s widely deployed mobile broadband technologies.

The latest entrants into LTE, namely China Telecom, KDDI, and Verizon Wireless are three largest Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) operators in the world, just as they pledged to start commercial deployments of LTE in their respective regions beginning from this quarter.

Experts believed that when this is achieved in combination of the expansive footprint of these operators’ existing mobile broadband services, will deliver high-speed services to over 150 million customers over the next three years. Qualcomm has also joined the GSMA as an associate member and will work with the operators to aid the smooth integration of LTE with existing mobile broadband technologies.

Disclosing this, the Chief Technology and Strategy Officer, GSMA, Mr. Alex Sinclair, said that with its compelling, high-speed and cost-effective network architecture, LTE is bringing the GSM and CDMA communities together.

”We are delighted that China Telecom, KDDI, and Verizon Wireless have joined the GSMA along with Qualcomm, and will be among the first operators to launch commercial LTE services,” he said.

As said by him, the rapid rise in demand for mobile broadband devices, applications and services is driving both kinds of operators (GSM and CDMA) to evolve their network infrastructures and embrace new, cutting-edge technologies.

He explained that LTE is widely regarded as “the Mobile Broadband technology that will be adopted by the vast majority of mobile operators globally.”

Director, Technology, China Telecom, Mr. Cao Lei, said that as the largest state-owned operator in China, China Telecom is very excited to join the GSMA, which hopefully will enable them to extend reach and network across the global mobile ecosystem.

President and Chairman, KDDI, Tadashi Onodera, said his network has been successful in satisfactorily delivering performance and quality of services through the CDMA network, but the growing demand for broader bandwidth and richer multimedia applications drove them to move towards LTE.

“We look forward to deploying LTE by the end of 2012 and the benefits a global ecosystem for mobile broadband will provide,” Onodera said.


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