BARCELONA--So what's a big CDMA operator like Verizon Wireless doing at a conference hosted by the GSM Association?
Well, it looks like the old technology wars that divided the wireless industry are being laid to rest as operators begin marching toward building the next-generation 4G networks. While there are still technology debates, most of the world's mobile operators, including nearly every GSM provider, are planning to use the same technology to build their 4G networks.
Dick Lynch,
Verizon CTO
This is a very big deal for the wireless industry, which has suffered from infighting and technology incompatibilities over the years.
As one of the biggest CDMA operators now embraces the same technology path as the GSM community, there is finally hope for peace and seamless worldwide roaming.
As a result, Verizon Wireless, the largest carrier in the U.S. and one of the largest CDMA operators in the world, made its first official appearance at the 2009 GSMA Mobile World Congress here this week. Dick Lynch, chief technology officer at parent company Verizon Communications, gave a keynote speech and dished out the details on the company's soon-to-be-built 4G wireless network that uses a technology called Long Term Evolution, or LTE.
CNET News sat down with Lynch after his speech to get more details on the network's launch and to find out what's happening with Verizon's Open Development Initiative. Below is an edited version of the conversation.
Q: This is your first time at Mobile World Congress, right? Why hasn't Verizon been here before? It is the largest wireless show in the world, after all.
Lynch: For one, we were invited this time.
Really, that's why you hadn't come before? You weren't invited?
Lynch: Not really. I'm joking. But seriously the more important question is what do we see in Mobile World Congress now? And the answer is, if you go back some years, we went down a certain technology path, and it wasn't well represented here. But now we've reached a point--and other carriers around the world--are reaching a point where we have to make a decision about 4G. And we made the choice of LTE. It also happens to be the path for GSM carriers, so it's a logical time for us to come together.
Vittorio Colao, CEO of Vodafone, said during his keynote speech this week that growth in mobile data will soon put a significant strain on current 3G networks. How much headroom does Verizon Wireless have left in its 3G network?
Lynch: In terms of adding more capacity, there's still a lot we can do. There's cell splitting, for example. But we're in a better position than Vittorio is. He has different amounts of spectrum in different countries, and so he has different technologies allocated for different spectrum bands. He is more limited too because of regulatory issues--whereas we have a lot more options and are able to grow.
But Verizon is working on its 4G network. This might suggest that Verizon is running out of 3G capacity. How long before Verizon's 3G network is tapped out?
Lynch: We could go for years on our 3G architecture by adding capacity. And there are a lot of things you can do to add capacity. But they're all more costly than moving to 4G, and they offer the same performance people experience today. And eventually, we think customers will find that insufficient for what they want to do in the future.
We can continue to add capacity, but we think in the next two to three to four years that consumer expectations will outclass the 3G network. That's why we are moving so quickly. We want to be there when the first wave of customers feels like 3G is not really fast enough.
How are you planning to roll out the new networks? Will there be devices that handle both 3G and 4G?
Lynch: Yes, there will devices that do both. What is important to our customers is ubiquity even from year one. So where LTE is available initially in our top markets, people will use that. And where it's not yet available, they'll fall back to EV-DO.
There will likely be more 3G coverage in year one than by year five. We will follow a similar plan to how we rolled out our 3G network. So initially there will be some subset of the entire country with 4G coverage, and we will expand that coverage every year.
How quickly will you be able to get LTE rolled out?
Lynch: We're going to follow the model we used in rolling out EV-DO. And we'll be aggressive about the roll-out in 2010. So if you look at the rate we did with EV-DO, I'd say for year one, we could do 25 to 30 major markets. That is probably reasonable. Just like we did with EV-DO, we will initially offer the service for PC cards and dongle devices. That's the easiest form factor, and it's the customer subset that can most benefit from the much faster speeds right way. After that we will follow with handsets.
During your keynote at Mobile World Congress, you outlined a road map for deploying LTE. Will the current economic environment affect those plans?
Lynch: If by the current economic environment, you mean Verizon's current position relative to the rest of the world, then what we have announced (Wednesday) is consistent with what we hope we can do in 2010. But I reserve the right to adjust that if things for Verizon get worse. If that were to happen, we may choose to adjust. But we are fairly bullish on our ability to do this.
Verizon announced the Open Device Initiative in late 2007, and you said during your keynote here that you think it's been a success. But I haven't seen any handsets announced, nor have I heard of any pricing plan for the service. So what's going on?
Lynch: Most of the early devices on ODI have been unique devices that are focused on specific applications. There are a couple that are using the network for telemetry in unusual places, and some other specific devices such as specialized laptops.
What about the handsets? I think that when this initiative was announced most people thought that Verizon was creating an environment where users could bring any handset to the Verizon network.
Lynch: Well, it typically takes about 18 to 24 months to develop and take to market a new handset. So if you're looking for phones, it's too soon. The fact that there aren't many handset manufacturers that have gone through the ODI certification process is more a result of how much time it takes to deliver that product than it has to do with us.
Also, we really look at ODI as a nontraditional catalyst for developing new products and applications (rather) than another way of offering phone service. That will be part of it, but there will also be devices like blood-pressure monitors that use the network.
I think you're starting from the premise that ODI is all about the consumer handset market, and I'm starting at the point of looking at it as the future vision of wireless connectivity. Consumers might not yet be aware of devices that could connect to this network.
You have explained that both on the Open Development network as well as on the new 4G LTE network you envision all kinds of devices being used instead of just handsets. How is that going to change your business model? You'll have to change or adapt the service plans, won't you?
Lynch: I think in the future we will see data pricing based on usage. We don't expect customers who have a device that works once a week and pushes 50 bytes across the network to pay the same as a customer using 50MB a day. So the rate will be variable based upon usage. There will be a variety of pricing arrangements to allow for aggregation.
So you don't see wireless broadband services being offered like traditional broadband? For example, at home I pay for a single broadband connection and I can attach any device to it. And I can use as many devices as I want on my network.
Lynch: No, I don't. The wireless network unlike our fiber network, Fios, has a capacity issue. On fiber, the bandwidth is yours and you pay for it. But in wireless you have resource scarcity. So someone using 50 times more bandwidth than everyone is using should be expected to pay more. That's why I think there will be usage-based plans. But that doesn't mean we can't package services to get a single price for different devices. We're still working on the pricing.
Verizon CTO Dick Lynch discusses the transition to a 4G wireless network.
(Credit: Marguerite Reardon/CNET Networks)BARCELONA--Verizon Communications' chief technology officer dished out details Wednesday on the company's soon-to-be-built 4G wireless network that's set to go live in 2010.
Verizon will begin testing the service this year and launch it commercially in at least 25 to 30 markets in the U.S. in 2010, CTO Dick Lynch said during an interview with CNET News after his keynote speech Wednesday at the 2009 GSMA Mobile World Congress here.
"We are modeling the roll-out after our EV-DO deployment. So we expect to get to about the same level in the first year of deploying LTE that we got with EV-DO, which is about 25 or 30 markets. That is probably a reasonable estimate," he said, referring to the Long Term Evolution network.
Verizon will continue to build out the 4G wireless network and expects to blanket the continental U.S. and Hawaii with the new wireless network by 2015.
The network will use 700MHz wireless spectrum that Verizon acquired in the Federal Communications Commission's auction last year. The company announced in 2007 that it planned to use a technology call Long Term Evolution to build its next-generation wireless networks.
Several GSM operators around the world have also announced plans to use LTE, which means that Verizon 4G wireless subscribers will eventually be able to roam globally.
Verizon has been testing the service in several areas in the U.S. including Minneapolis, Columbus, Ohio, and northern New Jersey. It's also been working with Vodafone (Verizon Wireless' co-parent) and China Mobile to test deployments in other parts of the world, including Budapest, Hungary, Dusseldorf, Germany, and Madrid, Lynch said.
The wireless spectrum that will be used to build the new network will be fully available in June after all U.S. broadcasters finish transitioning to digital TV signals. Congress recently pushed back the deadline to switch to digital TV broadcast from this week to June.
Download speeds
In its initial trials, Verizon says that it has demonstrated peak download speeds of around 50Mbps to 60Mbps. Average download speeds are likely to be a lot lower since the wireless spectrum is a shared medium. Still, the network will be much faster than the average speed of Verizon's 3G EV-DO service, which typically tops out at 400Kbps to 700Kbps.
Lynch also announced major equipment suppliers that will build the new network. Telecom equipment makers Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent, and Starent Networks will be used for the wireless and Internet infrastructure gear. Products from Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia Siemens will help provide the service layer of the network.
Lynch said during the interview that Verizon Wireless still has plenty of headroom left with its 3G technology but that in the not-too-distant future consumers are likely to demand higher-speed wireless connections. Lynch wants Verizon to be ready for that.
Demand will likely come from consumers who want to attach a slew of consumer electronics and other devices to the Internet wirelessly, he said. E-readers are good examples of devices that will be connected wirelessly and will drive demand for higher bandwidth.
Wireless connectivity to the Internet is also expected to be built into other products, such as digital cameras and even medical devices.
"In the not-so-distant-future, any and all devices will have LTE embedded in them," Lynch said during his speech. "We are seeing a new generation of converged devices that will let people do a lot more than we've seen so far."
More independence for customers?
One potential problem Verizon could face as it rolls out this new network has to do with customer support. During the Q&A section of the keynote, moderator Andy Zimmerman of Accenture asked Lynch how Verizon plans to deal with a likely deluge of customer support questions when the company allows people to use any device on the LTE network. Lynch essentially put the onus back on the consumer. He said that the wireless broadband market will evolve to be more like the PC market and that customers will expect to troubleshoot more of their own problems--rather than walking into a Verizon Wireless store or calling customer support like they do today to fix problems.
"Consumers will have to take more responsibility" for troubleshooting, he said. "It's a harsh message, but a factual message."
To some extent, Lynch might be right. Consumers may realize that a Verizon customer support representative won't be able to tell them how to fix their digital camera or their network-connected heart monitor. But I suspect customers will still expect a high level of support from Verizon, which will be providing the network connectivity.
After all, in the fixed broadband market, I don't call Dell or Microsoft when my home PC isn't connecting to the Internet. But I do call Time Warner Cable, my broadband provider.
Check back with CNET News later Wednesday to read the full interview with Lynch.
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