The folks over at Computerworld just ran the current 3G providers in America through their paces, only to discover that AT&T came out on top in almost every category. Well, it appears the monolithic telco plans to keep its edge (er...) on the competition -- by upping its HSPA service to a whopping 20Mbps come 2009. Our main man Ralph de la Vega said that the process wouldn't require a major overhaul to the provider's infrastructure, and that they're already working on punching up the current 3.6Mbps speeds to 7.2Mbps "in the labs." Apparently, this won't stall plans for forthcoming 4G / 700MHz / LTE service from the company -- it'll just be icing on the cake.

Read - Which 3G network is the best?
Read - AT&T plans 20-megabit 3G by 2009

BusinessWeek recently engaged Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin in an interesting, lively, and positively revealing interview about his company's 4G prospects, Android, and its marriage to Verizon, among other juicy morsels. The whole transcript is a good read, but we were particularly interested about his comments about LTE, the GSMA-adopted roadmap to 4G for GSM carriers. Despite the presumption that Vodafone would be moving to LTE alongside virtually everyone else, Sarin is careful to note that the company has not committed to it yet; they're still concerned about some intellectual property and technical issues, so they're steering clear of signing their names on the dotted line for the time being. He also says that partner Verizon is in more desperate, immediate need of LTE than it is, because EV-DO can't scale up to near-4G speeds to bridge the G gap the same way HSPA can. Either way, though, he says that Voda will be rolling out LTE in the 2011-2012 time frame, and that "for nobody is it an experience before 2010" -- so what difference does a year make, really?

[Via mocoNews]

Verizon just announced its plans for the open-access "C block" and other chunks of the 700MHz spectrum it purchased from the FCC for almost $10B. As expected, it's going to provide high speed, 4G services in the form of LTE in the newly acquired spectrum. Of course, the 2010 launch is the same target stated by AT&T. Verizon also claims to have increased its spectrum inventory by about 60%. Before and after auction coverage shots over at Engadget.

NTT DoCoMo had a pretty lavish setup here at CTIA, though no new product caught our eye. However, they did have the results from the Super 3G / LTE shenanigans they've been up to in Japan, and the results show serious speed. They're touting Super 3G / LTE as 3.9G -- wow, that extra .4G seems to be making a huge diff -- with theoretical downlink and uplink speeds listed as 70Mbps and 300Mbps. Compared to current HSPA speeds this is a monstrous leap, can you say kiss your cable goodbye? Hit the gallery below for more pics.

The same week that Nokia Siemens Networks unveiled its LTE solution for North America comes a little nugget from Ericsson: the M700. Hailed as the "world's first commercially available LTE-capable platform," it promises peak data transmissions of 100Mbps down and 50Mbps up, which will undoubtedly be the next best thing since sliced bread. Reportedly, initial devices based on the unit will be ExpressCards, USB modems, etc., and of course, it supports bandwidths between 1.4 and 20MHz and the oh-so-exciting 700MHz bands. Unfortunately, a commercial release isn't set to happen until 2009 -- with products "based on the platform" not scheduled until 2010 -- but to its credit, samples of ASICs will be ready to roll sometime this year.

Late last year, we were still wondering whether LTE even had the backing to keep up with WiMAX. Fast forward to CTIA 2008, and my, how the tables have turned. Vodafone, which already teamed up with Verizon in order to initiate an LTE trial in 2008, urged the rest of the wireless sector to put its support squarely behind Long Term Evolution. Vodafone Group's CEO, Arun Sarin, suggested that we could all see mobile internet speeds more similar to those enjoyed on the PC today if the industry "rallied around one broadband standard," specifically noting that "we need to look at LTE as an all-encompassing standard." The push comes hot on the heels of Sprint's unfortunate delay of its XOHM WiMAX network, but it should be noted that infrastructure vendors in attendance tended to feel that the two would coexist at least in the short term. Sheesh, let's just forget this whole LTE / WiMAX spat and place our bets on TD-SCDMA.

Make no mistake, LTE is quite likely the buzzword at CTIA 2008. That being the case, Nokia Siemens Networks is making sure it's part of the in-crowd by introducing a "LTE solution for radio and core networks [that] will enable operators to deploy WCDMA / HSPA and LTE in all major frequency bands, including the 700MHz and 1.7 / 2.1GHz bands that are of particular importance in North America." Apparently the outfit is assuming that winners of the recent spectrum auction will be champing at the bit to deploy new networks / services, and while we can only hope it's correct, the equipment to make it happen is seemingly ready to roll.

[Via PhoneScoop]

We're not grinding this one into stone just yet, but according to undisclosed "sources," KDDI will be supporting the same next-gen format as NTT DoCoMo and Softbank Mobile. According to so-called industry observers, KDDI's choice to back LTE will likely enable customers to switch providers without having to purchase an all new handset, thus providing more incentive for the carriers to offer more competitive rate plans. Chalk another up for the little big fella.

[Via IntoMobile]

We try not to be an overly philosophical bunch, but we can't help but observe some interesting parallels between Motorola's industry-first demonstration of an EV-DO Rev. A to LTE handoff with the way the entire wireless world is progressing. Without a single major carrier win to its name, EV-DO's successor, UMB, seems poised to ride off into the sunset while current CDMA customers like Verizon plan migrations to the GSM-friendly LTE standard. Anyway, this little technical achievement will certainly set the minds of said CDMA customers at rest, knowing that its subscribers will one day be able to roam on data services between EV-DO Rev. A and LTE cells -- and considering that the transition period could last many years, that's an important capability to have. On an interesting side note, Alltel was on hand for the demo; they've not committed to any 4G technology, but we can say with certainty that they're at least considering LTE at this point.

We still don't know whether Telus will be so hasty as to decommission its existing CDMA network in favor of UMTS / HSPA ahead of the long road to 4G, but it any rate, it looks like the Canadian carrier's next-gen technology of choice is darn near locked up. A job listing for a Senior Switch Engineer details CDMA and EV-DO experience as part of its requirements, naturally -- but here's where it gets interesting: they want "knowledge on UMTS, IMS, and LTE evolution" as well, without any mention of UMB or WiMAX to be found. In other words, if we wait around long enough, we'll be able to call Telus a GSM carrier, which should make the Rogers monolith just a little uneasy.

[Thanks, Justin Y.]

For a country with a vibrant history of shunning global standards in favor of homegrown, royalty-free ones, this is a pretty huge reversal of strategy -- and possibly an implicit admission that rolling your own wireless broadband specification is just more trouble than it's worth. Even before China's 3G TD-SCDMA network is deployed on a wide scale, China Mobile has hooked up with Vodafone and child Verizon Wireless to trial LTE on its home turf to help figure out what type of spectrum utilization yields the fastest and most efficient coverage. As China Mobile itself points out, the hookup could ultimately lead to an extraordinarily large -- dare we say, global 4G network that leads to a huge win for customers of the trio. It'll be a few years yet before any of us can reap cold, hard benefits, but it's a start.

What if Toshiba were to produce a Blu-ray player? If there's one surefire sign that a company is recognizing the mortality of its own standards, it's throwing some support behind the competition's -- and that's exactly what Qualcomm has done in announcing new roadmaps for its mobile and cellular base station chipsets that include LTE. LTE, one of several 4G standards competing for the hearts and minds of carriers across the world, has a huge leg up on Qualcomm's own UMB and WiMAX (which is technically a pre-4G standard, anyway) by having the blessing of the GSM Association, the global juggernaut of mobile industry organizations. Anyway, Qualcomm's new plans call for future chipsets to support various flavors of UMTS, HSPA, and EV-DO, theoretically making it easier for carriers of all creeds to migrate to LTE while still supporting legacy cells and devices. The new silicon is expected to be available next year, and without a single major carrier having signed up for UMB, we'd say that's not a moment too soon.

Kind of makes those New Years resolutions of yours seem a bit silly now, but AT&T has some high hopes for 2008. While it mulls its own 700MHz options and leaves the C block to the likes of Verizon, the company plans to build out its 3G network into 80 more cities, which boosts the number to 350 "leading" markets in the US, a rollout AT&T has been sluggish to compete with Verizon and Sprint on. AT&T also pledges to complete its HSUPA network by the middle of the year for speedier uploads. AT&T's not giving many specifics on its future network plans, just that existing infrastructure improvements pave the way for HSPA+ and LTE in the "years to come." Let's hope those years come fast, these HD downloads we keep hearing about are liable to set a few cell towers on fire by year's end.

LTE took another big step forward with an announced specification approval by the 3GPP. Who are they, exactly? Try China Mobile, DoCoMo, ETRI, Motorola, Nokia, Intel, LG, Qualcomm, RIM, Verizon, Vodafone, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile... round about 80 of the industries biggest movers. That puts the spec on deck for inclusion in the forthcoming 3GPP Release 8. 3GPP LTE you'll recall, is the 2010 (at the earliest) next generational followup to today's GSM/UMTS data networks -- just like WiMAX -- offering 326Mbps peak downloads (173Mbps demonstrated) and 86Mbps uploads. So hearing Alan Hadden, GSA President, say "LTE is firmly on track" sure sounds sweet to us even if he is just hocking his wares.

P.S. Hey, 3GPP. It's cute that someone's kid from your organization designed that logo and all, but seriously, this ain't Romper Room.

[Via TrustedReviews]

So-called Long Term Evolution -- GSM's chosen warpath for the next generation of data networks -- has been getting its groove on in labs for some time now, so Nokia Siemens decided it was high time to kick things up a notch by taking it out into the wild. The wireless infrastructure joint venture deployed an LTE base station in Berlin on the nascent 2.6GHz band and sent cars equipped with test equipment as far as one kilometer away to check performance, and put simply, the results were good: 173Mbps good, in the best cases. Of course, commercial deployment of LTE is still years away -- Nokia Siemens makes a point of listing 2010 as the target right in its press release -- but it's good to hear that things are coming along swimmingly, and we're sure Verizon would agree.

[Via PhoneMag and Ubergizmo]