Hasta La Gadget!

By and large, LTE is LTE — it’s just fast wireless, really, and there’s not a lot to see. You know you want it, and you really don’t need to be convinced. Amazingly, though, Samsung managed to impress us at Verizon’s 4G demonstration area today with its three-pack of LTE-enabled devices, including a modified photo frame, ST1000 digicam, and a MID called “Pioneer” which we’re told is little more than a Mondi with LTE swapped in place of WiMAX. Unlike some of the other demos we saw in the booth, Samsung was using actual integrated LTE chipsets — the real deal, not a concept of what kind of stuff you could see in an LTE-connected world — and if it weren’t for the conspicuous “LTE” logo atop the ST1000, we would’ve been none the wiser. With the camera, you could instantly beam photos straight to the frame, and the Pioneer allowed you to shoot live video displayed immediately on the frame, all using an LTE base station as an intermediary. This stuff isn’t as fanciful as it seems — Verizon intends to have a couple dozen markets operating in 2010, and these are all examples of the kinds of things we could see if only Big Red decides to make it financially reasonable for us. Check out some pictures of the system in action in our gallery below, because let’s be honest: unless you’re lucky, odds are good this is the closest you’re getting to a live 4G network in the next few months.

Samsung’s LTE-equipped cameras, MIDs, and photo frames shill for Verizon originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Jan 2010 09:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s not the first time that LG‘s shown its commitment to bringing LTE to us mere mortals — after all, it does hold the title for the world’s first LTE chip back in December 2008. This time round they’re demoing an LTE USB modem and a few handsets at CES, gunning for the theoretical maximum speeds (100Mbps down and 50Mbps up) and promising to let us “download an entire movie to your mobile phone in only one minute.” That said, until we’ve seen the real stats or even the products in the shops, we’ll just hang tight to see what the other party‘s got to offer.

LG to demo LTE USB modem and phones, show much love to video-streaming addicts originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 15:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Verizon Wireless has updated its LTE specs and released them to developers ahead of the carrier’s 4G rollout beginning next year, according to FierceWireless. The specs cover network access, SMS requirements, and data retry test plans, plus the carrier’s device approval process.

As part of its initial LTE deployment, Verizon is expected to launch USB modems and other connected devices in 25 to 30 markets sometime in the second half of 2010. It’s likely we won’t see LTE-capable smartphones until 2011, the report said.

So far, TeliaSonera is the only 4G provider to have powered up a commercial LTE network. (It’s in Stockholm.) LTE is expected to deliver average real-world data speeds of 5 to 12 Mbps for downloads, and 2 to 5 Mbps for uploads. There’s no word yet on pricing plans or data caps, according to the report.

Industry rifts remain over certain LTE-related specs, such as the transmission of voice and text messages over LTE. Verizon and AT&T are supporting One Voice, while T-Mobile has pledged support for VoLGA (Voice over LTE via Generic Access).

Since it’ll be eons until we enjoy the kind of 4G coverage that we’ve grown used to on 2G (and to a lesser extent, 3G), manufacturers and carriers are hard at work making sure that we’ve got a reliable way to interoperate for the foreseeable future — TeliaSonera, for instance, wants to swap out its customers’ modems for LTE / HSPA dual-mode versions once they’re available next year. To that end, Ericsson and ST-Ericsson are trumpeting that they’ve become the first to establish “LTE and HSPA mobility” in accordance with 3GPP’s Release 8 specification, which dictates this sort of stuff in a way everyone can agree on (that’s a good thing). Verizon’s naturally more interested in the CDMA handoffs that have already gone down, but for AT&T and most of the rest of the world, this is exciting news indeed.

Ericsson trials HSPA-LTE interoperability, we count 7 Gs in total originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Dec 2009 15:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TeliaSonera has today flicked on the green light for its LTE networks in Stockholm and Oslo, officially starting the countdown for LTE-enabled phones. For the moment, keen mobile webstronauts will only be able to hook up their laptop or other USB-equipped device via the Samsung-provided 4G modem, but 100Mbps download speeds on the world’s first commercial LTE network are still nothing to sniff at. This rollout is in fact slightly ahead of schedule, and the other major cities in Sweden and Norway are likely to soon get treated similarly well, while TeliaSonera makes a point to mention it has a license to do similar damage to Finland’s 3G operators. The US might not be too far behind, either, given that the modem in use in Scandinavia recently cleared the FCC. Now if only we had phones that could ride these massive waves we’d be all set.

TeliaSonera launches world’s first LTE network, awaits phones eagerly originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Dec 2009 07:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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