Greg Galitzine : Greg Galitzine's VoIP Authority Blog
Greg Galitzine

LTE

Stock Blog Compares AT&T, Verizon

April 22, 2009

This morning, over at Seeking Alpha, there's a nice article from ValueExpectations (a stock blog and investment newsletter that provides institutional quality equity research) on the difference between AT&T and Verizon. ValueExpectations.com is run by the founders of The Applied Finance Group and Toreador Research and Trading.   To start, the article separates AT&T and Verizon from the third place U.S. wireless provider, Sprint.   Then, it compares the relative value proposition of both top wireless operators.   AT&T's market cap is $150 billion to Verizon's $90 billion.   AT&T is considered to have the better 3G network and a partnership with Apple to offer what is considered the hottest smartphone on the market, the iPhone. Verizon however has a "decent" 3G network, according to the article, and through its partnership with and support for several Blackberry models, is riding a positive trend.   Verizon's FiOS is considered the wave of the future, delivering "lightning-fast fiber optics" while AT&T's FTTN (fiber to the node) strategy is somewhat wanting.

Paving the Way for Voice over LTE

February 12, 2009

Great. Another acronym.   I guess in the world of tech that we inhabit, that's to be expected.   This one's not so bad provided it's pronounced volt and not volt-EE.   What am I talking about? I'll tell you.   Nokia Siemens Networks has reportedly come up with an approach for providing voice service over LTE networks that:   ...operators can implement with simple and cost-effective software and hardware upgrades* to their existing 3GPP circuit-switch core network. The "Fast Track VoLTE" approach provides a cost-efficient way to offer voice over LTE (VoLTE) in any mobile network architecture.   Note the asterisk.

Wireless Association Comments on Stimulus Plan

February 10, 2009

President Obama's economic stimulus plan passed its first hurdle today, clearing the Senate, en route to the House.   Among the many elements of the bill, there is nearly $7billion in available funding for the delivery of wireless broadband to rural areas.   Fred Campbell, the President of the Wireless Communications Association International issued the following statement:   "WCAI is pleased that the Senate stimulus bill includes $6.65 billion in grants for broadband deployment. As the only broadband platform that is capable of providing access everywhere, all the time, and at affordable prices, wireless broadband is essential to broadband connectivity, especially in rural areas.

The Bell Has NOT Rung on WiMAX

January 30, 2009

So there's been quite a bit of buzz this past few weeks about the potential demise of WiMAX.   First Nokia stopped production of their WiMAX device, then there was some news about Intel writing off their entire investment in the venture with Clearwire... It was covered all over TMCnet, but Rich summed it up nicely in his post: The Trillion Dollar Question - Is WiMAX Dying?   Now, LTE has its proponents and WiMAX has its detractors, but Carl Ford, writing on the 4GWE blog points out the following:   While many want me to point to LTE as the clear winner, I don't think this would be a sign of WiMAX's apocalypse. I instead see this as a prudent move on Nortel's part to emphasize the pieces of the solutions they own. Partnerships in Telecom are pretty easily forced by the carriers, and the real story is that no carrier is forcing Nortel to support WiMAX.   This maybe proof that WiMAX is in trouble, but it's more likely proof that the legacy Nortel customers are not looking for Nortel to go into new areas with them.   So I asked Scenna Tabesh, director of marketing communications for the WiMAX Forum, for some insight into the Nortel situation as well as the future co-existence of the two 4G approaches, LTE and WiMAX.

Praise for LTE, WiMAX' Bad Week

January 9, 2009

  Market researcher ABI Research has released a new study that points to continued enthusiasm for LTE deployment.   Coming on the heels of a turbulent week for WiMAX (see: Intel's $950 million investment write-down and Nokia ceasing production of its only WiMAX device) it's a positive sign indeed for this 4G technology.   Now before we get carried away with the premature burial of WiMAX, it's important to note that Clearwire did light up a new city this week (Portland, OR) and has plans to start service in up to nine other cities in 2009. Let's wait before we get out the shovels.   Still ABI's report Long Term Evolution (LTE) draws attention to the fact that Verizon, (possibly sensing some blood in the water?) has reportedly moved up their LTE deployment plans by a year, from 2010 to 2009.   ABI notes that globally, 18 operators have announced LTE rollout plans.   Writing in the recent report, ABI Research senior analyst Nadine Manjaro said,   ABI Research believes that NTT will also deploy LTE in Japan in 2009. We forecast that by 2013 operators will spend over $8.6 billion on LTE base station infrastructure alone. For operators that have already deployed 3G networks, LTE will be a key CAPEX driver over the next five years.   Manjaro also notes that LTE application development could be a major driver of investment as operators explore which services to deploy.   As an example, Manjaro looks to Sprint and Verizon and their plans to provide third-party access to their GPS data.   The resulting new applications will tie mobility and presence aspects together to create more compelling services than in the past.

TMC, Ex-VON Team Join Up for 4G Event, Web Site

October 30, 2008

TMC and Crossfire Media announced they were working together to produce 4G Wireless Evolution, comprising a Web site, an event, and other media to address a growing need for information regarding the next generation of wireless.   4G is the fourth generation of wireless communications, which is expected to be implemented globally in the next 2-5 years, and which will offer significantly faster speeds and broader applications than current wireless networks can allow. The result will be an influx of new technologies and a significant increase in the number of customers using wireless communications for a wide variety of uses.   The 4G Wireless Evolution Conference is the first event dedicated to 4G technologies, and will take place February 2-4, 2009 at the Miami Beach Convention Center.   Industry watchers will note that this collaboration brings together some familiar faces, working together for the first time. In fact, over the past several weeks, the TMC team of Dave Rodriguez, Michael Genaro and I have been meeting with our counterparts at Crossfire Media: Scott Kargman, Joann Varello and Carl Ford to hash out the details of the partnership and to build the conference program and the Web sites. It's amazing to see all that hard work come to fruition today with the official launch.   Of course, now the work truly begins to make 4G Wireless Evolution the industry's #1 resource for all things 4G.
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