WRAL Tech Wire

Verizon Wireless offers a glimpse of the 4G world – faster data to go

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. — Verizon Wireless is moving aggressively toward development and deployment of its so-called “4G” network, even as most of us are still adopting and learning how to use 3G.

Dick Lynch, chief technology officer at Verizon Wireless, unveiled plans and equipment providers – a list that doesn’t include Nortel, by the way – at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona.

"In the not-so-distant-future, any and all devices will have LTE embedded in them," Lynch said in his address, according to media reports. "We are seeing a new generation of converged devices that will let people do a lot more than we've seen so far."

LTE stands for the technology that Verizon Wireless chose for the much-faster, fourth-generation network. It stands for Long-Term Evolution.

Since many wireless providers are also embracing LTE, Verizon Wireless envisions providing a service that enables global roaming.

For most users, however, the 4G network offers much faster data speeds. By 2015, Verizon Wireless intends for customers to have access to downloads at up to 60 megabits per second. That’s plenty good for mobile TV and video. Current 3G speeds are a fraction as fast. (The network will utilize spectrum that TV stations are giving up as they move to digital.)

Rollout begins next year.

Verizon Wireless also said it would use hardware from Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent. That decision could be a huge blow for Nortel, which as part of its bankruptcy restructuring recently dropped WiMax to focus on LTE.

The Skinny

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