[photopress:it_g4_mobile.jpg,full,alignright]China Mobile seems set lend its support to LTE, the wireless broadband standard that may well be the base for 4G technology.
LTE, or Long Term Evolution, is looking more and more likely as the next generation wireless technology to provide super-fast web surfing on mobiles. (The phones themselves will probably not look that different. Something like our illustration seems probable.)
Arun Sarin, Vodafone’s chief executive, said the UK group would join China Mobile and Verizon Wireless, the second-largest US mobile operator, to promote LTE.
It suggests LTE will emerge as the leading 4G technology, rather than WiMax or Ultra Mobile Broadband, which are the main alternatives.
All of this will start to happen around 2010.
Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, chief executive of Nokia, the world’s largest handset maker, said: ‘I see LTE as being the main fourth-generation technology.’
It is possible that other systems will run in tandem but, more and more, it looks as though 4G will be a form of LTE.
This puts China in a slightly odd position in that it has not yet got 3G out of the door. Take it that must happen this year otherwise China will be breaking its promise about it being a technology-driven Olympics and that is not likely to happen.
But it will be a limited launch and take-up of 3G simply because the Chinese government has been hoping that a home-grown version would be ready and running in plenty of time. That did not happen.
Which means that China will only be seriously covered for 3G by next year. Which gives the phone companies very little time to recover their investment before 4G is upon them in the form of LTE.
As this item was posted a press release arrived which stated:
China Mobile announced today that it is set to join LTE (Long Term Evolution) trials already beingcarried out by Vodafone and Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone.
Source: Financial Times
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