MWC: LTE makes a big splash

Feb 15 2010, 7:05pm CST | by Mark Raby

As the Mobile World Congress kicked off today in Barcelona, Spain, one of the key messages that rang across most major companies is that LTE is the way of the furue. LTE, or "Long Term Evolution," is the standard that carriers and manufacturers are beginning to accept as the evolution of 3G.

Several carriers, including Verizon Wireless in the US, made LTE announcements today during the first major mobile tradeshow since the initial deployment of LTE hardware last year. The wireless spec, more commonly referred to as "4G," has the ability to allow over-the-air downloads at blazingly fast speeds of up to 100 Mbps. That's more than 10 times what the iPhone can currently do.

Some manufacturers are already beginning to use the over-the-air technology in netbooks. Today, tech firm Anritsu tested the new specification with Samsung and LG handsets, with results confirming that 4G is on the way and is ready for the consumer market.

Cavium was at least one company displaying its back-end LTE solutions at the show, using mobile OCTEON processors. Other companies were displaying LTE chips, and Chinese-based telecom giant Huawei reportedly was able to achieve transfer speeds of an unbelievable 600 Mbps over the advanced network.

So make no mistake about it. The mobile broadband climate is changing in a big way. Expect 4G announcements to continue to be the big news story in the mobile phone industry throughout the year.

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Mark Raby
Based in New York City, Mark follows the consumer electronics industry like a hawk. A published book author, he has a particular affinity for 3D technology and video games, and as such will surely be in the market for a new pair of glasses soon. Mark can be contacted directly at mark@i4u.com.