FCC Gives Thumbs-Up To First LTE Phone

eagledck tips news that the FCC has "finally approved the first 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) phone for sale in the US." The Samsung device will use MetroPCS as a carrier, but tech specs, software details and a launch timetable are still uncertain. Meanwhile, Verizon is ramping up testing of their own LTE infrastructure, hoping to launch in 25 to 30 markets by the end of the year. An anonymous reader notes that LTE rollouts could be hampered by a confused and conflicted patent situation. "It is impossible to know where all the patents are but we have identified more than 60 companies holding essential patents. It is a very large landscape and fragmented. If there was one major patent pool and a handful of individual companies to deal with, that would be possible. But signing license deals with 40 plus [entities] is not. A unified patent pool is best," said a representative for one of three patent pool organizations trying to accomplish that.

Re:What is LTE?

[Nimloth]

Long-Term Evolution is the name given to the 4G successor to HS(D)PA networks.

Re:Strange, MetroPCS has no 3G network

[sonicmerlin]

Well Verizon's 4G will be on the 700 MHz band, which allows for deep penetration of thick walls and extremely long distances. Unfortunately for them they only have 20 MHz in that band, so caps will be a must. If I recall they plan on selling "buckets" of data. Don't see that working out too well in the face of Clear's capless 4G however.

Interestingly, I'm typing this out on an uncapped 4G WiMAX connection in Nagasaki, Japan. I download hundreds of gigabytes a month while paying $50/month. It's quite fun actually. I get approximately 5/.5 mbps international and 110 ms ping.

Re:What is LTE?

[sonicmerlin]

LTE is a 3.9G technology, faster than current 3G technologies employed by most carriers worldwide. With an LTE phone you'll manage speeds of 5-12 mbps down/2-5 mbps up. Battery life will probably be a bit of an issue though.

Re:Strange, MetroPCS has no 3G network

[commodore64_love]

(1) No doubt this is why Verizon ATT and others want to kill-off TV channels 25 through 51 --- so they can expand that 10 megahertz to 170 megahertz worth of cellphone spectrum.

(2) $50 a month sounds like a ripoff, especially considering I'm only paying $15 here in the US. Of course my connection is wired not wireless, but I'm okay with that. It's not a limitation for me.

Re:What is LTE?

[commodore64_love]

If you had RTFA (instead of googling), you'd know what LTE is. It's basically the same speed as 3G, but with 1/4 as much latency for VOIP, online gaminng, and such.

http://arstechnica.com/telecom/news/2010/03/faster-mobile-broadband-driven-by-congestion-not-speed.ars/2 [arstechnica.com]