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Monday, Nov 17, 2008 10:15am

RIM prepping LTE-based 4G B...

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.