VZW, Vodafone jointly exploring LTE

Verizon Wireless is working with part-owner Vodafone on jointly evaluating next-generation, or 4G, network technologies with the aim of converging their technology paths on both sides of the Atlantic. But Verizon Wireless officials said that neither company has committed to a specific technology, nor are they locked into deploying the same infrastructure after their trials are complete.

Verizon Communications CEO Ivan Seidenberg said at the Goldman Sachs investors conference this week that Verizon Wireless is working closely with Vodafone on development work for Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology, the eventual 4G successor to the UMTS networks deployed throughout Europe, Asia and in the U.S. by VZW competitors AT&T and T-Mobile. While LTE is on the two companies’ drawing boards, it isn’t the only technology they are considering, a Verizon Wireless spokesman, and even if Vodafone opts to pursue LTE like many of its GSM compatriots are expected to do, Verizon Wireless is not committed to following suite, a Verizon Wireless spokesman said today.

“Verizon Wireless is working closely with Vodafone to look at next-generation technologies,” the spokesman said. “We’re working together with the presumption that we’d select the same technology, but that’s not a hard-and-fast commitment.”

Neither is it a hard-and-fast certainty that Vodafone will choose LTE. LTE standard is being laid out by the 3^rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) today with the first deployments not expect for at least two years. While Vodafone has stuck to the 3GPP path in all of the networks its controls directly—it has only a 45% stake in CDMA operator Verizon Wireless—it recently joined the WiMAX Forum and launched a trial WiMAX in Malta. That opens up the possibility of abandoning the 3GPP evolutionary track entirely.

Vodafone wouldn’t be the first operator to defect to WiMAX. Verizon Wireless’s fellow CDMA operator Sprint is rolling out a nationwide WiMAX network with Clearwire, which is expected to go live next year. Sprint’s situation is unique, however, in that it owns 2.5 GHz spectrum it is required to use by the FCC. While other 4G technologies like LTE and Ultra-Mobile Broadband (UMB) are still several years from commercialization.

Unlike Sprint, neither Verizon Wireless nor Vodafone have pressing deployment timelines for 4G and neither have the spectrum either. WiMAX and other 4G technologies are intended to be very wideband technologies using 10 GHz, and even 20 GHz , channels that handle both uplink and downlink transmission. Verizon Wireless has only its PCS and cellular spectrum, though it may choose to bid in the upcoming auction of 700 MHz licenses, which can be used for 4G deployments. Vodafone through its affiliates has been buying up 3.5 GHz spectrum—also ideal for 4G—but it does not own the licenses in many of its major markets.

For its part, Verizon Wireless has consistently said it is in no hurry to consider 4G. In an interview this spring, Verizon Wireless chief technology officer Dick Lynch said that while Verizon Wireless is exploring all flavors of 4G: LTE, WiMAX and UMB, it’s 3G EV-DO network has plenty of life left in it.

“Let's ask ourselves what do we need this technology for? What do our customers need that they can't get on 3G?” he said. “I think the jury is still out there.”