11/17/2008, 10:15am, EST
Monday, November 17thRIM prepping LTE-based 4G BlackBerry?
Research in Motion hopes to avoid its earlier mistakes in wireless technology by leaping on 4G when it becomes available, according to a tip given to BGR. The Canadian BlackBerry designer is said to have created a team specifically to build a smartphone with much faster cellular Internet access using the Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard, which tops 100Mbps and should be used by most major North American carriers.
Most details are unknown, though the phone would be aggressively timed to launch along with the first commercial rollouts of 4G service. Bell, T-Mobile and Verizon at a minimum plan to launch their first LTE networks in 2010 and are likely to be joined by other carriers, though whether the handset would available on or ahead of these releases is unclear.
RIM has historically been conservative with data and only just released its first 3G phones for HSPA networks in mid-year with the launch of the BlackBerry Bold. While EVDO-based 3G models have been available earlier, the company has taken a hit from competing 3G smartphones and particularly Apple's iPhone 3G, which outsold BlackBerries worldwide in part through the absence of BlackBerries with faster Internet access on the same networks as iPhones.
Filed under: iPhone, mobile phones
Other story tags: BlackBerry, Research in Motion, LTE
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This is a good idea
for RIM, but my question is who the hell has a 4G network in place. Somebody has to start and I wish Apple could jump into 4G early, but it's going to be some chicken and egg nonsense of who's going to go first, the carriers or the handset companies. Apple's data hungry iPhone needs 4G far worse than those miserly BlackBerrys.
Apple needs to take some of that reserve cash and partnership with some company in rolling out WIMAX networks in large cities.