A few weeks ago I blogg'd on the topic of LTE and how it was going to bring the divided mobile world all back together. The energy and speed behind LTE is making it stand out in stark contrast to the sluggish way 3G rose to prominence. Today I came across two interesting news snippets about this - one supporting my optimism and one raising fears that LTE will be just another marketing-fest followed by slow delivery.
Motorla announced today that they were going to double their LTE investment in the coming year. This isn't all new money, because most of this increase is coming at the expense of reducing their investment in WiMax, but it shows a serious ambition about the potential of LTE. Interestingly they seem to be focusing on the more niche TD-LTE opportunity - which might be a very smart move indeed! Meanwhile Verizon delivered the (almost inevitable) news that the LTE commercial launch dates they announced only last February have already slipped back by at least six months to the second half of 2010.
Delayed launch dates followed by poor handset availability is what we have come to expect in the launch of a new generation of mobile...but perhaps, just perhaps this time it may be different.
Posted
05-19-2009 4:55 AM
by
Martin Creaner