@MWC: VZW joins GSMA, updates LTE plans

BARCELONA – Verizon Wireless’ metamorphosis from champion of CDMA technology among the world’s largest carriers to a full-fledged member of the dominant GSM-based world took another step to completion today as the nation’s largest operator announced its membership of the GSMA trade association.
The decision garnered considerable attention from the GSMA as the group hosted Verizon Wireless parent company Verizon Communications Inc.’s EVP and CTO Dick Lynch in attendance during a GSMA press conference at the GSMA-run Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona, Spain.
“Verizon is very excited about being offered and accepted as a member in GSMA,” Lynch said during the press conference. “I know that my face and technology were not welcome here at one time. We have recognized that the opportunity for the customer today can only be described as worldwide. Having joined with the membership in the GSMA and participating more fully with the worldwide ecosystem is a value to Verizon.”
Lynch added that with Verizon taking the aggressive step more than a year ago to launch LTE technology on top of its legacy CDMA-based network, it only made sense for the company to join the trade association. Lynch also provided an update on its LTE plans, though little new information was forthcoming.
“We are currently in phase four of trial work,” Lynch said. “In 60 days our Boston and Seattle markets will be fully past the testing phase and ready to go into commercial mode in a big way. There is no doubt that we will make a 2010 launch.”
Lynch confirmed the carrier’s previously announced plans to cover between 25 and 30 markets with LTE service by the end of the year. One new piece of information Lynch provided was that in trials he has seen in the test markets, the LTE network was able to handle four to five video streams on one channel in a mobile environment.”
Lynch also said the carrier was surprised by the development of LTE-embedded devices and that the carrier was looking at between eight and 10 devices beyond embedded modules to be ready at or near its commercial launch time frame.
Verizon Wireless was not the only new member to the GSMA as the association also announced that China Telecom, KDDI Corp. and Qualcomm Inc. were new members. The move highlights the CDMA industry’s accelerated pace in joining its once former opponent in the technology wars of the past.
The move also drew question as to whether the lone, competing 4G technology, WiMAX, was now backed into an even more intimidating corner.
“We are not saying we are killing WiMAX,” said Alex Sinclair, CTO of the GSMA. “WiMAX is a perfectly good technology and works well, especially for backhaul uses that it was designed for. Even some of our members are deploying it. Our message is that it won’t be mainstream. When LTE hits its stride in five to 10 years we will have one mainstream technology. We don’t need any more of the religious wars at this point.”
The WiMAX industry has scheduled for later tonight its own press and analyst event off-site during the MWC event. Expect a sharp rebuttal to tails that the technology’s future has been curtailed.