The Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has completed the majority of specifications for standardization of Long-Term Evolution (LTE) next-generation technology, meaning the full Release 8 standard is on track for completion by March.
The 3GPP still has to work on the evolved packet core, otherwise known as System Architecture Evolution, because the specifications weren't complete enough. 3GPP has written up a list of "exceptions" that will need to be finalized by March in order to be included in Release 8, according to an Unstrung article.
"There are a number of pieces of work which we thought should be included but weren't quite ready," said Adrian Scrase, vice president of international partnership projects with the European Telecommunications Standards Institute. "[There are] quite a number of parts for SAE, the work [on which] still lags behind LTE work. We have a high level of confidence that the items will be completed by March, otherwise we wouldn't have included them on the list."
The question now is, how fast will vendors be able to churn out standardized LTE equipment?
For more:
- read Unstrung [1]
Related articles:
T-Mobile International wants LTE fast [2]
Mobile industry pushes LTE [3]
Links:
[1] http://www.unstrung.com/document.asp?doc_id=169306
[2] http://www.fiercebroadbandwireless.com/story/t-mobile-wants-lte-fast/2008-11-05
[3] http://www.fiercewireless.com/europe/story/mobile-industry-pushes-lte/2008-06-19