FCC Gives Thumbs-Up To First LTE Phone

eagledck tips news that the FCC has "finally approved the first 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) phone for sale in the US." The Samsung device will use MetroPCS as a carrier, but tech specs, software details and a launch timetable are still uncertain. Meanwhile, Verizon is ramping up testing of their own LTE infrastructure, hoping to launch in 25 to 30 markets by the end of the year. An anonymous reader notes that LTE rollouts could be hampered by a confused and conflicted patent situation. "It is impossible to know where all the patents are but we have identified more than 60 companies holding essential patents. It is a very large landscape and fragmented. If there was one major patent pool and a handful of individual companies to deal with, that would be possible. But signing license deals with 40 plus [entities] is not. A unified patent pool is best," said a representative for one of three patent pool organizations trying to accomplish that.

Comments

Long-Term Evolution?

[Xamindar]

Long-Term Evolution, so does that mean all carriers and phones are going to be using the same frequencies so that I can use my phone with whatever carrier I want?

Re:What is LTE?

[hitmark]

Another thing is that LTE, like wimax, uses TCP/IP rather then some custom package protocol (that then again carries TCP/IP if one use the mobile network to access the internet). This turns any phone into a voip device from day one. It also means that rather then using UMTS or EVDO to carry TCP/IP, one can use TCP/IP to carry UMTS or EVDO. This means that LTE is a potential upgrade path for either of the major global 3G networks (and why your seeing companies like verizon going LTE, even tho its a GSM related standard).