TeliaSonera to expand its LTE network in 29 cities (Sweden)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The LTE network of TeliaSonera will be expanded by the telco to 29 cities across Sweden and Norway. 4G services of the operator were initially launched in Stockholm and Oslo last December using equipment from Ericsson and Huawei.
Unlike the version used in the pilot projects in Stockholm and Oslo, which were solely for LTE, the new 4G modem will also provide support for 2G and 3G networks. However, until 2011, the service, which is mobile broadband data only as handsets will not be available.
Norway’s four largest cities and Sweden’s 25 biggest cities and holiday areas will be able to avail the service by the end of 2011. According to the company, it is yet to fix a launch date for LTE in Finland, and that it is planning to bid for forthcoming licenses in Denmark, Estonia and Lithuania.
AT&T completes network trial (USA)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Successful completion of a live network environment field trial of 100-Gigabit backbone network technology has been announced by telco AT&T. new Cisco CRS-3 Carrier Routing System was field tested by AT&T during the trial.
Ixia’s K2†100 Gigabit traffic generator and analyzer along with the Opnext 100 Gigabit CFP client side modules has also been used AT&T. A single-carrier 100G transmission with real-time coherent processing on a 900-km long-haul transport link between Louisiana and Florida has been demonstrated in the trial.
The deployment of 4G network technology was completed by AT&T in 2008 in its US IP backbone network. A team was led by the company in 2008 and 2009 that completed two lab trials of 100G technology, expected to be ready for commercial deployment over the next few years.
Wavelength, real-time, coherent 127G PM-QPSK modem was demonstrated by Opnext during the trials. Opnext’s fully IEEE 802.3ba standards-compliant CFP MSA client optical modules which are fully interoperable with 100 GbE interfaces on IP routers were also included in te demonstration.
HTC Supersonic adds its video on YouTube
A video of HTC Supersonic has been added onto YouTube in which it showing the Supersonic booting up and what it looks like on the back. The aim of the HTC Supersonic is to be one of Sprint’s first 4G (WiMAX) enabled phones of the year.
A few days ago the first video for the Incredible was previewed which was followed by some more pictures that pooped up out of nowhere. Now a real-deal video of Supersonic is available on the YouTube and it doesn’t know the interface, an individual can actually feel for what the device looks like in hand.
Compared to the Incredible, while the Supersonic is also set to be a CDMA device, it also runs Sense. The due share AMOLED screens, 5-megapixel camera and Android 2.1. With the Incredible going towards Verizon, seemingly, at least, the Supersonic does indeed look like it will be heading towards Sprint.
Find the colors of the ocean in ‘Ascent Ti Neon’
Here comes a mobile phone, inspired by the colours of the ocean. We are talking about the new Ascent Ti Neon that comes with rubber on the back instead of the leather of the regular Ascent Ti, in a choice of four colours: green, orange, pink and white. What makes the phone so expensive could be attributed to its titanium chassis.
Providing a talk time of 4.5 hours (GSM) and a standby time of around 400 hours, the phone supports the quad band GSM coverage and WCDMA2100 throughout the world.
Ascent Ti Neon has a QVGA display, 4GB of internal memory, 3MP camera and supports Bluetooth interface.
Not to forget to mention, the phone comes with a high performance hands free loudspeaker.
The phone will go on sale in October and will cost nearly $9,900.
Zain Jordan considers LTE roll out
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: A number of offers by international equipment vendors are currently being studied by Zain Jordan for the introduction of Long Term Evolution (LTE). Offers to build 4G infrastructure from companies like Motorola, Ericsson, Huawei and Nokia Siemens Networks is on Zain’s cards.
According to Zain CEO Abdel Malek Al Jaber, he is awaiting a decision by the telecoms watchdog, the TRC, on the award of the necessary licenses which will hopefully lead to the launch of a trial network later this year, ahead of an official launch in early 2011.
SmarTone’s revenue falls and EBITDA rises by 7% (Hong Kong)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: 7% year-on-year decrease in the total revenue for the six months ended December 31, 2009 has been released by Hong Kong-based cellco SmarTone. Lower handset and accessory sales, and a 2% decline in services revenue brought the revenue to USD233 million.
As a result of the reduction in interconnection charges and cost control measures, 7% growth in the EBITDA has been recorded while the net profit increased by 112% to HKD111 million. 8% rise in the customer numbers has also been recorded, reaching to 1.231 million as of December 31, 2009. Out of this, 70% were post-paid customers.
Post-paid churn rate improved to 1.5% from 2.0% and blended ARPU fell by 7% to HKD214 in the six-month period compared to HKD230 a year earlier. The trend reflects continued downward pressure on local tariffs and lower roaming revenue.
23% year-on-year increase has been witnessed in data service revenue and it accounted for 33% of service revenue in the period under review. The HSPA+ network is already complete till 28.8Mbps, increasing the network speed to 42Mbps in 2010. This will pave the way for 80Mbps and even higher speeds with the implementation of 4G LTE services.
3G license was awarded to SmarTone in September 2009 and the country will start enjoying the 3G network in 2010.
LTE and WiMAX deployments to go together in 2010
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: December 2009 witnessed the launch of first commercial LTE network by TeliaSonera at Stockholm and Oslo and 2010 will see the continuation of the trend with commercial launch of several LTE networks, including large operators such as Verizon Wireless in the United States and NTT DoCoMo in Japan.
As LTE deployments begin to pick up pace, WiMAX continues its steady progress. Several operators, including Sprint in the United States, have chosen to go with WiMAX as their 4G network of choice.
According to ABI Research analyst Bhavya Khanna, while LTE does promise data speeds greater than 50Mbps, they have yet to be achieved by live or trial networks, whereas mobile WiMAX is now a tried and tested standard. ABI research 242 WiMAX, compared to only 38 for LTE.
Sprint to launch 4G wireless this summer in USA
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: 4G WiMAX mobile phone is planned to be released by Sprint-Nextel this summer to combat its continued struggles. Sprint plans to be the first U.S. wireless provider to market.
Data speed up to 10 times faster than current 3G network speeds is promised by the WiMAX supporters as viewing streaming videos, listening to online radio, communicating via instant message and other higher data apps operates faster using a WiMAX network.
San Francisco, New York, Washington, D.C. and Boston could not avail the WiMAX service currently but it is available in Atlanta, Baltimore, Las Vegas, Chicago, Philadelphia, Portland, Dallas and Seattle. Sprint is actively selling 4G products now, but the products thus far have been USB modems and a portable hotspot router.
4G to be only slightly faster than current 3G
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Massive costs, soaring consumer demand for data and the logistical nightmare of setting up tens of thousands of new cell sites- all these factors are going to lower the speed of 4G technology.
3G technology offers speeds of up to 2 megabits per second and broadband delivers 5 megabits per second to the average U.S. household. On the contrary, 4G will generate speeds of at least 100 megabits per second but the road to get there will be tough.
About 10,000 cell sites will have to be installed by the carriers to fully deploy a 4G network and this will cost hundreds and thousands of dollars. The two largest U.S. carriers, Verizon Wireless and AT&T have both announced plans to unveil 4G networks in the next two years based on a new technology called Long Term Evolution (LTE).
The No. 3 wireless carrier, Sprint Nextel claims to have a 4G network in place based on a different technology called WiMAX.
Sprint to launch its first 4G smartphone this year (USA)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The current 4G leader, Sprint has announced to introduce its first smartphone before mid-year with an aim to make the greater speed a reality for many businesses over the coming year.
Sprint’s 4G networks reaches about 30 million people in 27 markets and with the addition of Houston, New York, San Francisco, Boston, and Washington by the end of the year; it will expand the footprint to include 120 million people.
Sprint’s 4G WiMAX network has already been launched in 2008 but there have been no handsets to use on it. Apart from Sprint, several other USA carriers has also announced their entry into 4G services with Verizon announcing the introduction of its 4G network later this year using a competing technology called LTE.
AT&T is expected to launch its own LTE network sometime in 2011. Undoubtedly, Sprint’s rush to deliver 4G ahead of its competitors explains its choice of network technology.
