Finland ready to rock LTE at "lower cost" 1800MHz
By Chris Ziegler 
posted Apr 24th 2009 2:54PM
posted Apr 24th 2009 2:54PM
2.6GHz is fast emerging as a favored slot for LTE spectrum in Europe, but Finland's bucking the trend with an auction of some space in the 1800MHz band -- space that carriers TeliaSonera, Elisa, and DNA have snapped up. The frequency is touted as effectively being a lower-cost option for 4G deployment because it's better suited for range and penetration, meaning fewer base stations need to be deployed. Theoretically, the net effect should be that LTE networks get deployed faster in the country, but as we know all too well from 3G deployments, spectrum diversity always leads to fractured hardware availability; of course, with Nokia right in the backyard, we bet 1800 ends up getting all the support it needs to be successful.
Ah, should have seen this coming. There will be regional differences in hardware after all. Unless manufacturers build anntenae that can receive both frequencies.
The world will probably have to wait for 5- or 6G to be ratified to have a universal frequency for high speed data. At the very least, I hope the 4G buildout isn't as painful as the 3G buildout was.
Not to mention the fact that we also have WiMax, which they're also trying to market as "4G".
Verizon (and eventually AT&T sometime next century) LTE is going to be awesome with 700mhz... It should in theory give you much better coverage for a given tower density, and signals should be able to penetrate houses and building much better..