Verizon Wireless will begin deploying Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless broadband technology by the end of 2009, accelerating their rollout timetable, a top executive said Tuesday.
Dick Lynch, executive vice president and CTO of Verizon Communications, said the carrier expected to deploy LTE sooner than expected. "We expect that LTE will actually be in service somewhere here in the U.S. probably this time next year," Lynch said, in a speech at Cisco Systems' C-Scape conference in San Jose, Calif. Previous estimates for Verizon's LTE deployment had been for around 2010, with widescale commercial rollout sometime in 2011.
Verizon, along with AT&T Mobility have indicated they will throw their 4G support behind LTE, while Sprint Nextel has backed mobile WiMAX as its 4G standard. T-Mobile USA is still rolling out its 3G UMTS network across the United States.
Lynch also said that after Verizon begins deploying LTE, the carrier will offer femtocells to extend the signal indoors. "A femtocell of LTE or an access point of WiFi is a really critical component of the way customers want their broadband delivered," Lynch said.
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