VZ says LTE handsets slow in coming

Verizon CTO Anthony Melone in a talk [sub. required] today asserted that the carrier's first 4G phones should arrive in the middle of 2011. The unnamed handsets would come roughly a year after the Long Term Evolution-based network goes live for pure data but would be about six months ahead of the originally predicted timeframe. Any early phone is likely to have separate CDMA and LTE chipsets as coverage will still be small enough that subscribers will need legacy phone support to get service outside of 4G areas.

Malone also reiterated Verizon's view that 4G is likely to bring an end to the emphasis on unlimited data plans and that metered or tiered plans are more likely. The telecom firm executive wasn't ready to give an example of how this could work but did note that any system would have to come with an accurate gauge of how much data is being used. Customers afraid to use service are just as much of a problem as those who use it too much, he suggested.

The FCC has long warned of a spectrum crunch where a lack of available wireless frequencies could choke 3G and 4G service. Backhaul, or the infrastructure that carries data once off the wireless network, is also a concern. Critics have nonetheless noted that 4G is less expensive to deploy than 3G and have argued that carriers are simply looking for opportunities to raise the profit per user rather than cope with a perceived flood of data.

AT&T has partly mirrored Verizon's attitude to data limits and is also likely to follow a similar schedule for 4G phones. It doesn't expect to formally launch its own LTE network until 2011 but should have its own phone at roughly the same time as its key challenger.

By Electronista Staff