Verizon Boasts 4G Coming Sooner

BARCELONA, Spain -- There was a big announcement here today that could bring super-fast 4G cell-phone service to the U.S. a lot quicker than previously expected.

Verizon Communications(VZ) said Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson (ERIC) and Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) will build the first fourth-generation LTE wireless network in the U.S.

LTE stands for Long-Term Evolution. This new technology is expected to allow much faster mobile access to new cellular features like high-quality HD video. These features just weren't feasible with 3G wireless networks, but had been available via c able and DSL broadband networks

Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent will construct the network for Verizon Wireless, which is Verizon's mobile joint venture with Vodafone(VOD). They expect they will be able to start commercial service of the new technology next year.

That's what Verizon says. But according to some of the industry experts I discussed this with here at the show, the 2010 deadline seems a little bit overly optimistic. They believe that LTE technology is more like two or three years away from a feasible rollout in the U.S.

I spoke with a number of people responsible for making some of the highest-tech, recently announced, touch-screen handsets that the industry expects to be released this year. They told me that they see pure LTE-capable handsets becoming a reality a few years down the road.

One of the problems facing both the network and handset manufacturers could be an intermediate step of needing to create dual-mode handsets that will be able to be used on both Verizon's current CDMA/EVDO 3G network as well as its future 4G LTE frequencies.

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