A trio of handsets announced at last week’s 2012 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) will help to legiti- mize Long Term Evolution (LTE) as the true 4G technology platform for AT&T, and, perhaps more importantly, continue giving further credence and momentum to LTE as the de facto next-generation mobile communication standard.
Among the big three wireless carriers in the U.S., Verizon has led the 4G LTE charge, with its network up and running for the past year. AT&T, meanwhile, has been marketing its high-speed packet uplink packet access (HSUPA) devices as a 4G service, although it is technically regarded as 3.5G. However, at CES three 4G LTE smartphones destined for AT&T were unveiled: the Titan II from HTC, the Lumia 900 from Nokia Corp. and the Xperia Ion from Sony Corp.
The move by AT&T to adopt the trio of devices signals further progress for 4G LTE, which is ex- pected to achieve about a 10 percent penetration rate among global subscribers in 2015. This translates to 747.7 million subscribers by 2015, rising at a five-year compound annual growth rate of 113.4 percent, up from 16.9 million in 2011.
The LTE technologies used by Verizon and AT&T essentially are the same, although they work on different frequency spectrums—Verizon using EVDO as 3G backup, while AT&T relies on HSPA 3G service.
Among the announced AT&T handsets, the significant differences among them reside in the operat- ing systems. HTC and Nokia lead the LTE phone debuts with the latest Windows Phone 7.5 platform by Microsoft, while the Sony Xperia Ion is an Android-based phone. Thus far, all of Verizon’s LTE phones are Android-based devices.
Driven by Demand
AT&T needs to get on the LTE bandwagon, given the jumpstart that Verizon has taken and the potential in subscribers that are actively seeking a faster, better way to receive content. Although AT&T recently suffered a setback in the failed acquisition of competing rival T-Mobile, AT&T will deploy LTE on its existing 700-megahertz frequency as well as its Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) spectrum. LTE spectrum capacity and coverage will remain an ongoing concern for carriers as demand for the new wire- less technology grows.
What will generate the projected massive growth in LTE subscribers will be the demand for faster mobile data rates, reduced latencies and mobile applications—driven by rising sales of smartphones, tab- lets and Ultrabooks from Intel Corp. But consumers don’t care how they get their content—they simply want it and want it fast. From instant music downloads to high-definition video streaming, to multiplayer gaming and more, 4G can deliver the bandwidth needed to replicate experiences that consumers are used to via broadband Internet services.
The emphasis on the newest wireless technology is a shift away from the focus on handset technol- ogy and represents an interesting change in OEM strategy. In the past, advances in hardware technolo- gy—such as touch screen and navigation—were the main drivers for cellphones. Today, consumers desire content whenever and wherever the need occurs to them, at faster rates and with less latency as well.
As such, the move by AT&T to offer true 4G LTE phones will help to feed ravenous consumers bent on accessing their apps, games, music, streamed video and social networking content as quickly as possible.
Read More > Smartphones and 4G, Changing the Mobile Industry