With the news that Apple’s contract with AT&T would be up in 2010, there were rumors abound that Verizon would be moving in to get a deal with Apple to bring the Jesus phone to Big Red. Bad news CDMA lovers: It’s not going to happen. Well, not for the iPhone 3G anyway.
As press releases go, this one is short and sweet: Telefonica have given the first “real” LTE demonstration today in Madrid, Spain. Unlike earlier tests, the fourth-generation network was not a standalone prototype but connected to the existing 3G and 2G network.
The SlashGear team are in Barcelona and we’re ready to bring you all the top stories from Mobile World Congress 2009. Although the last two weeks have been filled with leaks – Samsung, we’re looking at you – and early announcements, we’re still expecting a few interesting surprises. Of course, we’ll also be bringing you hands-on reports, exclusive video and photo galleries of all the biggest launches.
We know that Samsung will be bringing their new flagship feature-phone, the Samsung UltraTOUCH S8300 (aka Samsung Tocco Ultra), as well as a number of other devices, many of which use AMOLED display technology rather than the more traditional (and generally more power-hungry) LCD TFT screens. LG, meanwhile, have their Arena KM900 – which is being heavily advertised across Barcelona – complete with its nifty new 3D GUI.
MWC 2009 predictions after the cut
Samsung is reportedly developing its own in-house WiMAX and LTE (Long Term Evolution) chipsets in an attempt to reduce the royalties it pays to third-party manufacturers. The move will come as a blow to Qualcomm, currently the number one wireless chipmaker, who have seen rivals Texas Instruments and Freescale withdraw from that aspect of the industry. While its wealth of intellectual property (IP) surrounding the 3G CDMA standard has seen Qualcomm profit greatly in recent years (Samsung themselves use Qualcomm chips in some devices), the company holds less WiMAX or LTE IP and as such is in a more tenuous position.
According to an announcement made by LG this morning, the company has developed the very first LTE-standard 4G chip. This is a pretty big deal, considering how many people anticipate LTE to be the standard in the coming years.
Clearwire announced today that they will be calling their WiMAX network “Clear.” This comes after the recently finished deal with Sprint for WiMAX. In fact, the Clear moniker will be used in place of Sprint’s Xohm branding.
The deal was worth about $14.5 billion and made it so Clear will replace Xohm on Clearwire’s segment of the WiMAX network. This is instead of a joint name. However, Clearwire doesn’t seem to be connected to WiMAX for 4G. In fact, future tech may very well be switched over to the LTE standard, if need be.
In 2010, many other carriers like T-Mobile and Verizon will be using LTE, so it would make sense for Clearwire to make the switch as well if that is where the market goes. However, both Intel and Sprint might run into trouble in the future as they are betting their game on WiMAX.
Nothing like ambition to get the mouth watering, and Ericsson have create a whole lot of leaky orifices today after a presentation slide suggests that they envisage mobile devices with cameras capable of HD-quality video and 20-megapixel images by 2012. In addition, the company believes we’ll be using 1Gbps LTE Advanced mobile networks by the following year.
Verizon got most of C-Block and have admitted they intent to use it for their 4th generation LTE network, which will replace their 3G EV-DO Rev. A network. ATT has said that it will also be using most of the spectrum it acquired for an LTE network, but whereas Verizon is touting a full launch date of 2010, ATT is calling out 2012, however ATT also intends on upgrading their HSDPA network to 7.2Mbps to hold their customers over.
NokiaSiemensNetworks took their LTE-based 4G network for a test drive and it worked well. In fact, it went so well that they even at distances up to several hundred meters away they were still getting over 100Mbps speeds.
All three companies are looking to LTE (Long-Term Evolution) as their choice for 4G data access. LTE, which I had never personally heard of, apparently offers up 100 megabits per second down, and up to 50 megabits per second up with a low latency of 20 milliseconds making gaming and video conferencing a more viable venture on the network.
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