Are Device Manufacturers Ready for LTE?

At CES this year, Verizon Wireless launched a series of devices, including four Smartphones: the LG Revolution, the HTC Thunderbolt, the Motorola Droid Bionic and the Samsung SCH-I520. A few other devices, a couple of hotspots - job done.

Speaking to many device manufacturers over the years, usually they wait at least six months after a network has launched before they even start to think about developing devices on any kind of scale. A key difference between 3G and LTE deployments is the time between the first tests and network launch is much smaller, so there is much less time for testing the network, QoS and devices. Operators will still be finding protocol and interoperability issues and will continue lab testing of devices and services because everything is new. So if network maturity has always been key, then why rush to get so many devices out into the market so early?

There are a few possible reasons. Samsung LG and HTC have been the most agressive device manufacturers for LTE and are keen to gain a piece of the smartphone market in which Apple so far has dominated. Samsung has already launched the first LTE dual-SIM smartphone with MetroPCS, so are keen to develop devices and be seen as leaders in the industry.

The more likely reason is that Verizon Wireless is keen to close the gap on AT&T in the US smartphone market, where AT&T has built a sizable lead largely due to the iPhone. In fact in 3Q10 AT&T had more than twice as many smartphone subscriptions as Verizon, with 49 million compared to 20 million at Verizon, according to Informa Telecoms & Media data.

It is an interesting strategy from VZW, as they have always touted the fact that the quality of thier network is far superior to that of AT&T, although this is unlikely to be the case early on with thier LTE network. One would have expected the likes of VZW to take their time to get the network to a good standard before they launching lots of devices. Instead they seem to have taken a leaf out of AT&T's book. Perhaps they have realised that customers don't care about the network or which technology an operator uses - its all about the devices.

MetroPCS Picks Ericsson for Its LTE Network

MetroPCS a regional carrier in the USA and a leading provider of unlimited, flat-rate, no contract service announced today that it has selected its infrastructure and initial handset vendors for its second half 2010 LTE launch.

MetroPCS selected Ericsson as its infrastructure vendor for the launch of its LTE service. This is Ericsson's second major LTE vendor win in the US market (the first being the contract secured with Verizon Wireless) and further evidence of the company's strengthening position in North America. In addition, MetroPCS has also selected Samsung Telecommunications America, which is actually the number one mobile phone provider in the USA to provide the Company's initial LTE handset. They plan on offering LTE services and a dual-mode LTE/CDMA smartphones in their major metropolitan markets in late 2010. This will be before Verizon starts to offer its own dual mode handset, which is planned for 2011.

MetroPCS has successfully encouraged customers to "cut the cord" on their landline phones by introducing their unlimited, flat-rate, no signed contract plans. MetroPCS offers a diverse selection of service plans, which allow customers to talk 24-hours-a-day, seven days a week and currently serves 5.4 million customers. With MetroPCS, services do not require a signed contract, deposit or credit check! This type of pricing seems set to continue with the launch of LTE, even though it has been called disruptive by some in the industry. It will be interesting to see what sort of pricing plans other operators adopt for LTE and whether tariffs will be as diverse as MetroPCS's. A diverse selection of service plans should help to encourage the uptake of LTE even if there is a lack of variety with the devices available early on.

The Staff VP for LTE, Solyman Ashrafi will be speaking at the LTE Americas conference on the 4th and 5th of November in Dallas.

Verizon Looking to Beat MetroPCS with its LTE Launch in Q1 2010

According to a report by TechCrunch.com, Verizon is planning to launch Long Term Evolution (LTE) services across its key markets in the first quarter of 2010, in an effort to beat rivals MetroPCS to market. Verizon officially plans to begin testing its networks by the end of 2009 before commercially launching services in the second quarter of the following year.

In March, MetroPCS announced that it was aiming to introduce LTE to its network in the second quarter of 2010

There have been conflicting comments from Verizon with regard to their roll out and launch dates for LTE. These have varied from the following:

Aug. 13, 2008: Verizon said it will roll out the network in 2010 and cover most of the country by 2012
Dec. 10, 2008: Verizon said it would deploy LTE in 2009
Jan. 27, 2009: Verizon said it hopes to have LTE commercially available by the first half of 2010
Feb. 18, 2009: Verizon said LTE will be commercially deployed in 2010 with handsets coming in 2011
May 15, 2009: Verizon said it plans to launch LTE commercially in the second half of 2010

The most recent update is that Verizon will launch LTE trials in Seattle and Boston later this year and plans to launch its commercial service in 30 markets in 2010 and that they plan to have full network coverage by 2013, leading to rumours about Verizon wanting to launch the service in time for the new iPhone tablet, expected in early 2010.

The CTO of Verizon Wireless will be giving a keynote speech at Informa’s LTE Americas conference in Dallas on the 4th of November. For more information visit www.lteconference.com