Telecom shelves plans of 4G upgradation of CDMA network (New Zealand)

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Telecom New Zealand has reportedly shelved its plans to upgrade the CDMA network in a 4G network based on LTE technology. It was in February that Telecom announced that it would work with technology partner Alcatel-Lucent in 2010 to see whether an upgrade from CDMA was viable. But spokesman Ian Bonnar says it now believes the route to LTE is from UMTS, the technology standard on which its XT mobile network is based.
“As we have invested in UMTS, and that is the network we are going to be pushing over the next few years, it seems sensible to evolve it.” he stated.
Vodafone and Telecom now intend to deploy 4G networks in 2012, though they are likely to have to wait till 2013-2015 for radio spectrum to be released. Vodafone spokeswoman Alison Sykora says it plans to test LTE next year. 2degrees chief executive Eric Hertz says it will not be left behind and also intends to look at the technology.
Mr Bonnar says the move to 4G does not necessarily mean that XT susbcribers will have to look for new mobile handsets. “The way it will probably play out is we will keep the [XT] network for voice and use LTE for data, but it depends on what handsets evolve.”