LTE gains steam: Nokia, LG, Alcatel-Lucent tests set stage for commercial deployments

Over the past week, a wide breadth of telecom companies have completed Long Term Evolution tests.
Nokia Corp. announced results last week from the first phase of a trial that the company claimed achieved 100 megabit-per-second data transfer speeds. The trial was conducted by the Long Term Evolution/System Architecture Evolution Trial Initiative (LTSI), which was founded by a variety of infrastructure vendors, handset manufacturers and wireless operators.
The initiative is slated for three phases: proof of concept, interoperability and trial. Testing and reporting will continue through 2009 with initial deployments planned for 2010. The technology is being standardized by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP).
LTE received another boost (albeit expected) earlier this week when the board of the GSM Association voted to back the technology as the standard to succeed HSPA (High-Speed Packet Access). Verizon Wireless and Vodafone Group plc shocked some in the industry when the companies announced they were considering LTE as the 4G evolution path for their respective networks. However, neither company has yet fully committed to the technology.
Many still expect CDMA operator Verizon Wireless-45% owned by Vodafone-to eventually select Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB) technology, which stands on the CDMA evolution path, and is often touted as an alternative to LTE technology, which stands on the W-CDMA evolution path.
The benefits of LTE and WiMAX, which along with UMB are touted as 4G technologies, were debated at length during the WiMAX World USA conference earlier this fall.
“These early results show great promise for 3GPP LTE technology, and are a tangible early validation of the reality of 3GPP LTE systems and services The collective and cooperative performance test work accomplished to date by this pioneering group is a testimony to the group’s leadership and determination to accelerate the availability of commercial and interoperable LTE systems,” an LTSI spokesperson wrote in a statement.
Separately, Alcatel-Lucent and LG Electronics Co. Ltd. also completed LTE test calls using the infrastructure vendor’s protocol and the handset manufacturer’s devices, the companies announced.
The tests reportedly demonstrated “super high-speed data transmissions, validating the expected performance of LTE in the field and were conducted using both single antenna and multiple input/multiple output (MIMO) 2×2 configurations, transmitting over a 10-megahertz channel.”
Alcatel-Lucent and LG are collaborating on interoperability testing, market research on applications and devices, and joint customer outreach. The tests were carried out by Bell Labs researchers and product development teams in Alcatel-Lucent’s facility in Stuttgart, Germany.
“We are proud of the results that were demonstrated by this end-to-end LTE system, which help show in concrete terms the benefits and capabilities that LTE mobile broadband technology can deliver,” said Mary Chan, president of Alcatel-Lucent’s wireless networks.