Nortel Networks gets 3G speeds from EDGE – Evolved EDGE
By Will Park on Monday, February 11th, 2008 at 8:14 AM PST In Announcements, Services, Technologies
Some people live on the EDGE of wireless data, Nortel Networks (NYSE: NT) lives on the Evolved EDGE.
Nortel Networks has announced their new Evolved EDGE technology that will allow EDGE network operators to squeeze 3G speeds out of their poky 2.5G system. How does 1.2Mbps on the downstream sound? It probably sounds like money in the bank for carriers that are relying mainly on EDGE for their data services.
The Nortel Networks-developed Evolved EDGE technology is supposed to be a simple upgrade for existing EDGE infrastructure, making it an attractive option for EDGE networks. You get 3G speeds while using the same bandwidth as GSM/EDGE.
Now, Nortel Networks is pushing their Evolved EDGE tech as a cost-effective bridge between GSM and LTE. The keyword here is “cost-effective.” The big players in the wireless game know that HSPA is where its at right now, and LTE is where it’s going to be in a couple years. The bridge is supposed to be HSPA+, but if Nortel wants to call their Evolved EDGE a bridge, we’re not gonna stop them.
We’ll take some HSPA+ please. Hold the EDGE, it makes us bloated.
This technology would be nice if T-mobile gave their customers Evolved Edge while we all have existing Windows Mobile and PDA devices on the existing slow edge data network! I never heard of this before but it would be nice to know if T-mobile is pursuing this since they have sold many edge enabled smartphones and pda’s and their 3g upgrade will not be live throughout the nation for a year. Thanks Dave Riley