Wireless phone providers are about to broaden the reach of their broadband services and give them a big bump in speed as they salivate over opportunities to connect everything from multimedia smartphones to dog collars.
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You’ll see new categories of (mobile Internet) entertainment and multimedia devices that aren’t (conventional) phones, Sprint Nextel CEO Dan Hesse said at the CTIA Wireless convention [in Las Vegas]. It will change the way we think of wireless.
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The industry is hungry for opportunities: Now that just about anyone who wants a cell phone has one, wireless service providers are facing very difficult times due to slowing growth, says Dan Hays, director of telecom at management consulting firm PRTM. That’s putting a pressure on profits.
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But executives are on a high after watching consumers spend $41 billion last year on wireless Internet, up 28 percent from 2008. To keep that going, [many]of the industry’s giants announced plans for next-generation networks or phones.
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Although they’re using several different technologies, nearly all of the upgrades are being marketed as fourth-generation, or 4G, improvements:
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*Verizon and smaller rival MetroPCS are boosting their networks with a technology called Long Term Evolution, or LTE, that may increase data speeds by up to 10 times their current rate.
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*Sprint plans to introduce its first 4G phone, by handset-maker HTC, this summer. The phone will run on a wireless technology called WiMax, which shares its roots with Wi-Fi.
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*T-Mobile is rolling out High Speed Packet Access Plus (HSPA+), a technology that will allow consumers to wirelessly download a movie in 17 minutes, the company says.
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ATT had previously announced its strategy. It will focus on its existing 3G network for now and will start building out LTE next year.
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Phone carriers and manufacturers are trotting out state-of-the-art devices designed to take advantage of those network investments….