Accommodating the Move to LTE

Hopefully this LTE test system will help component manufacturers get their devices ready for the public sooner rather than later and maybe help them eliminate any bugs from the new network before release.

Verizon is launching LTE in the US next month (Dec 2010) and so far are only releasing 2 laptop cards for it. Phones and other handheld devices will hopefully be announced at CES 2011 but not sure how many devices there will be to choose from.

Well, this will be the first implementation of LTE by a non-GSM provider -- at least in the US. All other LTE implementations are actually known as High Speed Packet Access on GSM networks. These are early releases of the LTE standard. Release 10, which Verizon will implement, is the fist one to be used by a non-GSM carrier -- because it is similar to, but not based strictly on, GSM.

As new technologies are launched and approach true 4G, you can expect them to become more and more similar. Most of the differences will be in how well the network operator performs and how much they charge. End user experience will be about the same.