The US LTE market is now set to scale rapidly, following the coup of Metro PCS in being the first operator to switch on its services in Las Vegas in September 2010. AT&T has also announced plans to fully deploy LTE services by mid-2011 and to cover 75 million US citizens by Q4 next year. Verizon confirmed that its 700MHz spectrum for LTE deployment will carry average data rates of between five to 12Mbps and will have better quality than existing 3G networks.
“We are driven by the vision to provide ubiquitous wireless broadband connectivity and mobility to rural and urban Americans alike,” said Lowell McAdam, president and CEO at Verizon.
Verizon has signed a $4 billion deal with Alcatel-Lucent to provide the equipment and manufacturing build-out for the operator’s LTE network and to support Verizon’s 3G network expansion.
Research firm Telegeography reports Huawei has the most commercial LTE agreements with 18 contracts: “Western equipment vendors, Ericsson, Nokia Siemens and Alcatel- Lucent, have dominated the 2G and 3G markets and are now doing well in the 4G sphere, while the past two years have seen a remarkable surge by Huawei,” stated the report.
