T-Mobile, Orange bring up the obvious concerns over LTE
By Chris Ziegler 
posted May 20th 2009 2:41PM
posted May 20th 2009 2:41PM
In Europe, Deutsche Telekom-owned T-Mobile and France Telecom-owned Orange are falling behind competitors with their LTE plans, but they say there are some very, very good reasons to blame. First, there's a little thing called "voice" -- you know, the main reason most of us have phones -- which isn't natively supported by LTE since it's a pure data technology; different carriers are currently endorsing different standards for routing voice, including some who are suggesting keeping legacy GSM and CDMA networks alive solely for their voice channels. That's just the beginning, though; the carriers are also worried about a massive crunch on the back end as devices capable of downlink speeds well over 20Mbps -- speeds that easily exceed the average home broadband connection -- put unprecedented pressure on infrastructure. There are also ongoing worries over intellectual property and the massive cost that'll be incurred by anyone hoping to manufacture or maintain LTE equipment, and the icing on the cake might be spectrum -- not all of the space necessary for full-scale LTE deployments in Europe has been auctioned yet, so these guys are biding their time anyway. All told, it sounds like it's a long way off before everyone's on the same page here.
Isn't T-Mo USA thinking of doing LTE over AWS? Or at least experimenting with it?
Also I vote to keep GSM around for voice. What less would I do with my backup phones once GSM dies? :'(
Why can't CDMA use SIM cards? or some form of device interchangeability - like interchangeable guts?
They didn't standardize a way for VOICE to work? Seriously? What idiots are in charge of this?
LTE is a pure data network, which describes a hardware protocol, not the data being used to transmit it. Voice isn't explicitly integrated into the protocol like it was in "pre-4G" protocols where data was piggybacking on a protocol designed primarily for voice. It's the reverse.
Yes, they did. The LTE standard for voice is the IP Multimedia Subsystem. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_Multimedia_Subsystem
I have absolutely no clue why anyone would claim voice over LTE doesn't have a bona-fide ETSI standard.
It amazes me that despite these advances in wireless data technology, we haven't come up with a voice network that reliably sounds as good as a landline.
This is the reason Sprint was going EV-DV (which takes voice 100% over IP) till Verizon decided it only wanted EV-DO and Sprint needed that for roaming (as above stated EV-DV was Voice over Data and they couldnt survive on not roaming). They were attempting to experiment with VoiceOverIP but it never happened. Right now, they are managing to do it with WiMAX....
So my question is.... With LTE, why did it take till NOW, for anyone to think "hmm, how will we all agree on one standard for Voice roaming, or routing calls over data?"
I mean, what kinda freaking morons are running the LTE shows at companies, and instead of hating each other for being "the largest carrier in *insert country here*" why not actually work together and share the wealth of knowledge and re-establish themselves as something great. Capitalism sucks...
Anyway - I just really wanted to state that some companies are experimenting with it, but most have totally forgot what it takes to make a network still run. I mean, GSM is about on its last leg in most countries except North America, and CDMA is still going strong as well, but how much longer can both actually go..most importantly how much longer can the public go with having batteries that are constantly drained because a network operator insists on having CDMA/WiMAX/LTE, or GSM/LTE radios in their phones connected to both at the same time? We seen what happens with customers on the iPhone in America HATING the battery life and coverage, so lets be frank for a moment....
The idea with LTE is that you create a single high performance data network. Then the carrier has the option of either use a separate voice network like Verizon is doing now with 1x (voice) and EV-DO (data). Or they can implement some sort of VOIP solution and just send voice over the data network. You would think maintaining a single data network would be the easier option vs. two separate networks. I've always wondered if the average non-techie Verizon user even understands what the 2 signal meters on their phones are for since Verizon labels then 1x and Ev.
It took me a year or two to even notice and that's just because I'm in the industry that I'd care.