Telecom providers announce LTE standard

In the battle between LTE and WiMax for wireless broadband, LTE may have just gotten another boost.

A group of leading telecom service and equipment providers, including AT&T, Verizon, Nokia, and Samsung, announced a new standard Thursday for delivering compatible voice and messaging services using Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks.

The standard, dubbed the One Voice initiative, offers a set of technical functionalities that telecommunication companies can use in their LTE services and products to provide both voice and Short Message Services (SMS).

The group of companies setting up One Voice (which also includes LTE proponents Orange, Telefonica, TeliaSonera, Vodafone, Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks, and Sony Ericsson), see the standard as a way to provide interoperability for broadband voice and SMS services. The goal is to give telecom providers and manufacturers a convenient technical profile for working with each other and save customers from wrestling with different and conflicting LTE technologies.

LTE has been fine at supporting data, which uses IP-based packet switching. But it's faced challenges trying to incorporate traditional circuit-based switching voice and SMS services onto IP-based networks. One Voice is the group's attempt to resolve that issue.

The new specification will use existing functionality known as IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), which already defines how to provide data, voice, and other content over an IP-based network. IMS was established by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), a group comprised of telecom industry associations trying to set standards for 3G mobile networks.

"Open collaborative discussions have concluded that the IP Multimedia Subsystem-based solution as defined by 3GPP, is the most applicable approach to meeting the consumers' expectations," said One Group in a statement.

In recent years, LTE has been duking it out with WiMax to be crowned the upcoming broadband wireless standard. In one corner has been telecom giants like AT&T and Verizon, both of which have announced plans to deploy 4G wireless networks using LTE.

In the other corner has been Sprint, which is eyeing a rollout of its own 4G network using WiMax. Sprint owns a majority stake in WiMax provider Clearwire, a wholesale distributor of 4G services. Clearwire recently unveiled a huge WiMax testing sandbox in Silicon Valley where developers could play with the technology.

However, Clearwire has been waffling on the choice between LTE and WiMax. In a recent interview with Dow Jones Newswires, Clearwire CEO Bill Morrow said he would be willing to switch to LTE if helped the company.

[jayhawk73]

Clearwire waffling on LTE or WiMAX? Uh, I don't think so. They're marketing their WiMAX network as we speak.

From a press release today:

The CLEAR customer experience is similar to that provided by Wi-Fi, but without the short range limitations of a traditional Internet hot spot. CLEAR uses a wireless 4G technology that differs from Wi-Fi called WiMAX, which provides service areas measured in miles, not feet. Furthermore, CLEAR gives you average mobile download speeds of 3 to 6 mbps with bursts over 10 mbps.*

http://newsroom.clearwire.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=214419&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1351731&highlight=

[Cheese McBeese]

I'm posting this comment from my laptop using a Clear WiMax modem. The service became available in Dallas on Sunday. I'm getting 5M down and .95M up. No monthly bandwidth cap. It rocks.

LTE is 18-24 months behind WiMax. Add another 12 months now that IMS has been identified as enabling technology.

If Clear moves fast enough and maintains a very aggressive pricing strategy, they will build huge market momentum before LTE sees the light of day.

[aaron_van]

"The chip that LG will demonstrate can achieve wireless download speeds of 60 Mbps and upload speeds of 20 Mbps. The fastest phones currently on the market use HSDPA technology and download at a maximum speed of 7.6 Mbps." Quoted from the linked article below.

http://www.lge.com/about/press_release/detail/21097.jhtml

I work for a major wireless carrier that plans to release LTE, and from what I understand it's going to blow WiMax away. The download speeds you're quoting really are not that impressive, and upload is a joke. I'm sure that there are many factors that come into play such as distance from source and obstacles between you and source that may be slowing down your speeds, but they still are not enough to impress when you really get down to comparing what the two technologies are FULLY capable of.

That and WiMax/Clearwires biggest supporter that I've seen is going to be Sprint...? Not to bash the compitition, but that is a company that has a history of setting itself apart from the rest of the industry... But not in the good ways. Before I deployed to Iraq, I saw more Sprint/Nextel customers ticked off at there service wanting to change providers than any other company.

It may be to early to say absolutely yet, but I see WiMax going the way of the 8-track vs. cassette or HD vs. Blu-ray, Then again, I could be way off base and maybe it'll turn into something of a niche market with it's only following like Apple has... Who knows?

[aaron_van]

I stand somewhat corrected on the upload speed you quoted being a joke, but I do stand behind the statement that it really is not that impressive when you consider what the technologies are truly capable of.

[Cheese McBeese]

@aaron_van - The WiMax service is capable of more but Clear is only running on a portion of the installed towers until the user base grows. Also, don't forget that the speeds I'm seeing with WiMax are greater than MOST Comcast users experience (and there is no 250GB cap with Clear).

In the long run, LTE (or son of LTE) will likely become the dominant standard because of global adoption. WiMax will either evolve or maintain presence in a few isolated markets - just like CDMA. However, in the time it takes for the telecom dinosaurs to drag their butts towards LTE, I'll enjoy my WiMax service.

Oh, by the way, the Clear USB WiMax modem has an optional attachment that turns it into a WiMax version of the Mifi. Creates a local wifi network with a radius of 150' that supports up to 7 users.

[sundance808]

they should all focus on wimax instead and work on moving cellphones to this technology. the main reason why they are mentioning a technology with SMS and voice together (IP can do both and much more effeciently) is because SMS is a good revenue source for them and they dont want to kill that.

[Cheese McBeese]

Agree with your point on SMS (same applies for MMS). As soon as enough people are equipped with mobiles that support email and IM, SMS and MMS are dead.

[zyxxy]

LTE has better support for mobility. Clearwire was originally founded to provide fixed broadband wireless to areas that are under served by wired broadband. WiMax mobility is an add-on. LTE is mobile by design.

[regulator1956]

I like WiMAX because it's available for private campus use. If a city, school or business wants to cover their environment, they can with just a few radios instead of 1) requiring a monthly cost to a cell company or 2) creating a huge mesh of WiFi.