No LTE phone in the stars for 2010

If wishing something made it so, the U.S. would surely have a 4G iPhone in 2010. But the release schedules of long-term evolution chip vendors dash those hopes. While LTE silicon will be available in time to support the first data card launches on Verizon Wireless' new 4G network next year, the integrated chipsets necessary to support a multimode handset won't be.

Without silicon there won't be commercial LTE phones, iPhone or otherwise, though some enterprising vendor may opt to build what amounts to a concept phone, piecing together different 3G, LTE and applications processor components to create a highly expensive and rather inefficient device. “There will be an interest in developing super-high-end devices that have compelling super-high-end data rates, but those won't be high-volume sellers,” said Jörgen Lantto, chief technology officer for ST-Ericsson. “They will be used more to show off.”

The first integrated chipsets targeted at handsets will likely wind up in vendors' hands in the second half of 2010, after which they still have to design, build and test their devices. Qualcomm promises to produce combo LTE chips for both UMTS and CDMA handsets by mid-2010, which would put it on target to support both AT&T and Verizon's LTE networks in 2011.

But when those handsets are available, Verizon is expected to move quickly in migrating all mobile data devices to the new LTE network. While VZW's CDMA 1X voice network will be around for the foreseeable future, “EV-DO would have a much shorter lifespan as we migrate data traffic to the LTE network,” said Tony Melone, chief technology officer for VZW.