AT&T Wireless Chooses LTE for 4G Services

Posted by: Sr. Editor Lonny Paul on Saturday, April 5th, 2008

AT&T Logo AT&T was announced as a big winner in the FCC Auction of frequency for next generation wireless services, and with AT&T expecting to deliver AT&T 3G services to nearly 350 major U.S. markets by the end of the year, they are already planning for the years ahead when our bandwidth needs are greater and more digital mobile services are in use.

With broadband speeds in the hundreds of Megabits - this is no slow connection and promises much for the future of wireless.

According to the InformationWeek column:

AT&T’s wireless operation will move from its current GSM-based infrastructure to Long Term Evolution, or LTE, the high-speed standard that’s expected to be used eventually by all mobile phone service providers. De la Vega also hinted at the CTIA show in Las Vegas this week that AT&T may utilize the open source Android system promoted by Google. Other service providers and manufacturers, including T-Mobile, Sprint, and LG Electronics, have also expressed interest in Android.

According to the Broadband Wireless Exchange Magazine, LTE capabilities include:

Downlink peak throughput data rates up to 326 Mbps with 20 MHz bandwidth
Uplink peak throughput data rates up to 86 Mbps with 20 MHz bandwidth
Scalability to operate in a wide range of bandwidths from 1.4 - 20 MHz
Operability in both TDD and FDD modes
Reduced latency, to 10 milliseconds round-trip time between user equipment and the base station, and to less than 100 milliseconds transition time from inactive to active