The Gods, can you hear them singing? Verizon choose not to go with EVDO revision C for their next generation network, they are instead going with the GSM Association’s standard currently known as 3G LTE (Long Term Evolution)! Much of this is due to the fact that their big brother Vodafone will be implementing the same technology over seas and they want to have a common platform. Expect this network to be live in 3 – 4 years. Here is what Wikipedia has to say about LTE:
- Download rates of 100 Mbit/s, and upload rates of 50 Mbit/s for every 20 MHz of spectrum
- Sub-5ms latency for small IP packets
- Optimal cell size of 5 km, 30 km sizes with reasonable performance, and up to 100 km cell sizes supported with acceptable performance
Verizon based devices with a SIM card? Hell has truly frozen over and boy oh boy am I glad about this change. With Sprint going to WiMAX, Verizon going with LTE, what other radical decisions will American operators make in the upcoming years?
[Via: Phone Scoop, RCR Wireless News]