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AT&T continues to follow Verizon's LTE footsteps
AT&T Mobility appears to be following its rival Verizon in terms of its preparations for rolling out its LTE network, although it is happening a year later.
Like Verizon, AT&T recently chose Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson as its LTE vendors, but is also establishing LTE innovation centers, just like Verizon did last April. The operator plans to launch innovation centers later this year in conjunction with its LTE trial networks in three locations it will name at another date, including two in the U.S. and one international facility. AT&T said the centers will be constructed to enable AT&T scientists and engineers to work with device makers, application developers and network equipment providers to speed up the development of an ecosystem of mobile and wired broadband services for consumers and business users. AT&T said third-party developers will be access a range of AT&T services and network capabilities to help with development of new applications.
In an interview with Connected Planet, AT&T Chief Technology Officer John Donovan said the operator will also open up its U-Verse IPTV platform to infrastructure suppliers, device manufacturers and application developers.
AT&T is expected to launch LTE commercially in the second half of 2011, but it likely working to push that date earlier to compete with Verizon.
For more:
- check out this Connected Planet article
- read this AT&T release
Related articles:
AT&T chooses Ericsson, AlcaLu for LTE
Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson win Verizon LTE deal
AT&T upgrades cell sites to HSPA 7.2 software
AT&T nears record with 2.7M net adds in Q4
AT&T & LTE vs. T-Mobile & HSPA+ = Fight!
More stories about LTE AT&T Mobility John Donovan innovation center T-Mobile Verizon Wireless alcatel lucent
Comments
Posted by John Taylor, Sprint | February 22, 2010 - 8:36am
Sprint is the first and only national wireless carrier to offer 4G in the US. The steps Verizon and AT&T are doing now, Sprint did in 2005 and 2006. Currently, Sprint 4G is available to 30 million people; by the end of next year Sprint will cover 120 million people.
Why does Fierce Wireless continue to run incomplete stories like this on 4G?
Posted by John Taylor, Sprint | February 22, 2010 - 8:38am
Sprint is the first and only national wireless carrier to offer 4G in the US. The steps Verizon and AT&T are doing now, Sprint did in 2005 and 2006. Currently, Sprint 4G is available to 30 million people; by the end of next year Sprint will cover 120 million people.
Why does Fierce Wireless continue to run incomplete stories like this on 4G?
Posted by Lynnette Luna | February 22, 2010 - 1:12pm
First, there is no mention of 4G in this story. And we could argue about what 4G is. It's technically not this version of WiMAX you are referring to. It's Sprint's marketing name. Secondly, how would including Sprint in this article be newsworthy? We are not going to mention Sprint just for the sake of mentioning Sprint. What news has it announced pertaining to this subject?--Lynnette
Posted by Anonymous | February 22, 2010 - 2:54pm
Sprint is last in everything and not worthy of mentioning in an article about wireless carriers.
9 million ex-Sprint Subscribers have spoken.
Posted by Sprint advocate | February 22, 2010 - 11:38pm
In response to Posted by Anonymous | February 22, 2010 - 2:54pm remark that Sprint is 'last in everything' I can only say this person is not very on top of it since Sprint is first in 4G...
Posted by Anonymous | February 27, 2010 - 1:05am
For the record, Sprint doesn't have a 4G network. Sprint doesn't even have a 3G network. Sprint outsourced it 3G network to Ericsson and is riding Clear's Wi-Max at 2.5 GHz (as a 4G stop gap measure), because Sprint has been shedding subscribers for years and lacked the capital to bid in the FCC's 700 MHz auction. Verizon on the other hand, bid $9B of the $19B total that was bid by all carriers combined in the 700 MHz auction and will therefore be able to offer subscribers coast to coast blanket coverage across the US using LTE at 700 MHz, a much prefered slice of spectrum, (because of the physical properties of a lower frequency) that travels farther from the tower and penetrates buildings better than a 2.5 GHz wi-max signal. This means Verizon will be able to cover more territory with relatively fewer towers, which will therefore cost less to build out in the long run, and will provide a better experience ultimately for customers. Also, Verizon's choice of LTE lines up globally with other carriers to allow for seamless international use. Finally, when Verizon builds out a market, they build out the entire market. They don't just stick a tower near an airport terminal and declare a metro service area "covered". And Verizon doesn't stoop to claim areas like Minneapolis and St. Paul are two separate markets in an attempt to artifically bloat it's city list.
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