The Global Mobile Suppliers Association (GSA; even though it should be GMSA, don’t ask) have declared that there are now 101 operators around the world in 41 countries that have committed to deploying LTE technology. There are also 31 additional operators who are playing around with LTE, but have yet to commit to deploying an LTE network.
Can you hear that crying in the corner? It’s the WiMAX Forum.
Back to the statistics. The GSA are predicting that by the end of this year there will be around 22 commercial LTE networks up and running and that by the end of 2012 that number will swell up to 50. TeliaSonera was the first to launch LTE, way back in December 2009. The cities of Stockholm and Oslo were lucky enough to be the first in the world to get to experience what it’s like to have a USB modem giving you speeds faster than the broadband that comes out of the wall in your home. Initially their network used only 10 MHz worth of spectrum, but TeliaSonera have recently doubled that to 20 MHz and we’ve seen how that’s benefited the city of Gothenburg where the people are hitting 85 to 90 Mbps on average.
Now what about America? Verizon and MetroPCS have both committed to launching their respective LTE networks by the end of the year. Verizon claims that they’re going to cover over 100 million people, while MetroPCS has being keeping their mouth shut about their infrastructure and just blabbing on and on about the Samsung Craft, the world’s first LTE enabled mobile phone. In terms of speed Verizon is saying that they’ll be giving customers between 5 and 12 Mbps, which is an order of magnitude less than what the Swedes and Norwegians are getting. MetroPCS has yet to comment about their speeds. Clearwire, the first “4G” operator in America, is playing around with LTE and have said they’re targeting speeds between 20 and 70 Mbps. When will their network go up though is a question only the Chief Technology Officer knows the answer to, and he isn’t talking.
[Via: Cellular News]