New touchscreen BlackBerrys being launched

Research In Motion Ltd unveiled five new BlackBerry phones with touchscreens, as it hopes to revive the line's dwindling appeal in the face of competition from the iPhone and Android smartphones.

The new phones had been expected earlier this year, but were delayed. Though the company is profitable and seeing growing sales, it is increasingly seen as a has-been that missed the chance to parlay the BlackBerry's popularity as a corporate e-mail device into mass-market dominance.

The Canadian company, which is based in Waterloo, Ontario, is updating its high-end Bold models to include touchscreens. It's also launching two Torch models with big screens but no physical keyboards, mimicking the basic design of the iPhone.

RIM launched a keyboard-less touchscreen phone called the Storm in 2008, more than a year after the first iPhone, but the Storm's quirky design and poor software made it a flop.

"The all-touchscreen Torch has been a while coming as a natural successor to the disappointing Storm, particularly when the smartphone market has gone touchscreen mad over the past 18 months," said Malik Saadi, an analyst at Informa.

The phones run a new version of the BlackBerry operating system, which RIM said is much faster, particularly for web browsing.

The Bold models will be the first BlackBerrys to include so-called Near-Field Communications chips, so they can be used in place of credit cards by swiping them across properly equipped payment terminals.

Many companies, including cellphone carriers like AT&T and web companies like Google Inc are promoting the idea of using phones as digital "wallets."

New touchscreen BlackBerrys being launched

Research In Motion Ltd unveiled five new BlackBerry phones with touchscreens, as it hopes to revive the line's dwindling appeal in the face of competition from the iPhone and Android smartphones.

The new phones had been expected earlier this year, but were delayed. Though the company is profitable and seeing growing sales, it is increasingly seen as a has-been that missed the chance to parlay the BlackBerry's popularity as a corporate e-mail device into mass-market dominance.

The Canadian company, which is based in Waterloo, Ontario, is updating its high-end Bold models to include touchscreens. It's also launching two Torch models with big screens but no physical keyboards, mimicking the basic design of the iPhone.

RIM launched a keyboard-less touchscreen phone called the Storm in 2008, more than a year after the first iPhone, but the Storm's quirky design and poor software made it a flop.

"The all-touchscreen Torch has been a while coming as a natural successor to the disappointing Storm, particularly when the smartphone market has gone touchscreen mad over the past 18 months," said Malik Saadi, an analyst at Informa.

The phones run a new version of the BlackBerry operating system, which RIM said is much faster, particularly for web browsing.

The Bold models will be the first BlackBerrys to include so-called Near-Field Communications chips, so they can be used in place of credit cards by swiping them across properly equipped payment terminals.

Many companies, including cellphone carriers like AT&T and web companies like Google Inc are promoting the idea of using phones as digital "wallets."

New touchscreen BlackBerrys being launched

Research In Motion Ltd unveiled five new BlackBerry phones with touchscreens, as it hopes to revive the line's dwindling appeal in the face of competition from the iPhone and Android smartphones.

The new phones had been expected earlier this year, but were delayed. Though the company is profitable and seeing growing sales, it is increasingly seen as a has-been that missed the chance to parlay the BlackBerry's popularity as a corporate e-mail device into mass-market dominance.

The Canadian company, which is based in Waterloo, Ontario, is updating its high-end Bold models to include touchscreens. It's also launching two Torch models with big screens but no physical keyboards, mimicking the basic design of the iPhone.

RIM launched a keyboard-less touchscreen phone called the Storm in 2008, more than a year after the first iPhone, but the Storm's quirky design and poor software made it a flop.

"The all-touchscreen Torch has been a while coming as a natural successor to the disappointing Storm, particularly when the smartphone market has gone touchscreen mad over the past 18 months," said Malik Saadi, an analyst at Informa.

The phones run a new version of the BlackBerry operating system, which RIM said is much faster, particularly for web browsing.

The Bold models will be the first BlackBerrys to include so-called Near-Field Communications chips, so they can be used in place of credit cards by swiping them across properly equipped payment terminals.

Many companies, including cellphone carriers like AT&T and web companies like Google Inc are promoting the idea of using phones as digital "wallets."

AT&T proposed to buy T-Mobile USA for $39 billion

NEW YORK: AT&T Inc will buy T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom AG in a cash-and-stock deal valued at US$39bil that would make it the largest cellphone company in the United States.

The deal would reduce the number of wireless carriers with national coverage from four to three, and is sure to face close regulatory scrutiny.

It also removes a potential partner for Sprint Nextel Corp, the struggling No 3 carrier, which had been in talks to combine with T-Mobile USA, according to Wall Street Journal reports.
AT&T is now the country's second-largest wireless carrier and T-Mobile USA is the fourth largest.

The acquisition would give AT&T 129 million subscribers, vaulting it past Verizon Wireless' 102 million. The combined company would serve about 43% of US cellphones.


For T-Mobile USA's 33.7 million subscribers, the news doesn't immediately change anything. Because of the long regulatory process, AT&T expects the acquisition to take a year to close.
But when and if it closes, T-Mobile USA customers would get access to AT&T's phone line-up, including the iPhone.

The effect of reduced competition in the cellphone industry is harder to fathom. Public interest group Public Knowledge said that eliminating one of the four national phone carriers would be "unthinkable."

"We know the results of arrangements like this - higher prices, fewer choices, less innovation," said Public Knowledge president Gigi Sohn, in a statement.

Stifel Nicolaus analyst Rebecca Arbogast said the deal will face a tough review by the Federal Communications Commission and the Justice Department.

She expects them to look market-by-market at whether the deal will harm competition. Even if regulators approve the acquisition, she added, they are likely to require AT&T to sell off parts of its business or T-Mobile's business.

To mollify regulators, AT&T has said that it would spend an additional US$8bil to expand ultrafast wireless broadband into rural areas.

Instead of covering about 80% of the US population with its so-called Long Term Evolution, or LTE network, AT&T's new goal would be 95% , it said.

The offer would help the FCC and the Obama administration meet their stated goals of bringing high-speed Internet access to all Americans.

They see wireless networks as critical to meeting that goal - particularly in rural areas where it does not make economic sense to build landline networks. - AP

AT&T proposed to buy T-Mobile USA for $39 billion

NEW YORK: AT&T Inc will buy T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom AG in a cash-and-stock deal valued at US$39bil that would make it the largest cellphone company in the United States.

The deal would reduce the number of wireless carriers with national coverage from four to three, and is sure to face close regulatory scrutiny.

It also removes a potential partner for Sprint Nextel Corp, the struggling No 3 carrier, which had been in talks to combine with T-Mobile USA, according to Wall Street Journal reports.
AT&T is now the country's second-largest wireless carrier and T-Mobile USA is the fourth largest.

The acquisition would give AT&T 129 million subscribers, vaulting it past Verizon Wireless' 102 million. The combined company would serve about 43% of US cellphones.


For T-Mobile USA's 33.7 million subscribers, the news doesn't immediately change anything. Because of the long regulatory process, AT&T expects the acquisition to take a year to close.
But when and if it closes, T-Mobile USA customers would get access to AT&T's phone line-up, including the iPhone.

The effect of reduced competition in the cellphone industry is harder to fathom. Public interest group Public Knowledge said that eliminating one of the four national phone carriers would be "unthinkable."

"We know the results of arrangements like this - higher prices, fewer choices, less innovation," said Public Knowledge president Gigi Sohn, in a statement.

Stifel Nicolaus analyst Rebecca Arbogast said the deal will face a tough review by the Federal Communications Commission and the Justice Department.

She expects them to look market-by-market at whether the deal will harm competition. Even if regulators approve the acquisition, she added, they are likely to require AT&T to sell off parts of its business or T-Mobile's business.

To mollify regulators, AT&T has said that it would spend an additional US$8bil to expand ultrafast wireless broadband into rural areas.

Instead of covering about 80% of the US population with its so-called Long Term Evolution, or LTE network, AT&T's new goal would be 95% , it said.

The offer would help the FCC and the Obama administration meet their stated goals of bringing high-speed Internet access to all Americans.

They see wireless networks as critical to meeting that goal - particularly in rural areas where it does not make economic sense to build landline networks. - AP

AT&T proposed to buy T-Mobile USA for $39 billion

NEW YORK: AT&T Inc will buy T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom AG in a cash-and-stock deal valued at US$39bil that would make it the largest cellphone company in the United States.

The deal would reduce the number of wireless carriers with national coverage from four to three, and is sure to face close regulatory scrutiny.

It also removes a potential partner for Sprint Nextel Corp, the struggling No 3 carrier, which had been in talks to combine with T-Mobile USA, according to Wall Street Journal reports.
AT&T is now the country's second-largest wireless carrier and T-Mobile USA is the fourth largest.

The acquisition would give AT&T 129 million subscribers, vaulting it past Verizon Wireless' 102 million. The combined company would serve about 43% of US cellphones.


For T-Mobile USA's 33.7 million subscribers, the news doesn't immediately change anything. Because of the long regulatory process, AT&T expects the acquisition to take a year to close.
But when and if it closes, T-Mobile USA customers would get access to AT&T's phone line-up, including the iPhone.

The effect of reduced competition in the cellphone industry is harder to fathom. Public interest group Public Knowledge said that eliminating one of the four national phone carriers would be "unthinkable."

"We know the results of arrangements like this - higher prices, fewer choices, less innovation," said Public Knowledge president Gigi Sohn, in a statement.

Stifel Nicolaus analyst Rebecca Arbogast said the deal will face a tough review by the Federal Communications Commission and the Justice Department.

She expects them to look market-by-market at whether the deal will harm competition. Even if regulators approve the acquisition, she added, they are likely to require AT&T to sell off parts of its business or T-Mobile's business.

To mollify regulators, AT&T has said that it would spend an additional US$8bil to expand ultrafast wireless broadband into rural areas.

Instead of covering about 80% of the US population with its so-called Long Term Evolution, or LTE network, AT&T's new goal would be 95% , it said.

The offer would help the FCC and the Obama administration meet their stated goals of bringing high-speed Internet access to all Americans.

They see wireless networks as critical to meeting that goal - particularly in rural areas where it does not make economic sense to build landline networks. - AP

Online video providers not protecting kids

NOT SAFE: A screencap of the Hulu website. According to a study, mainstream online video sites in the United States, such as Hulu, are not doing enough to keep explicit content from kids.

Mainstream online video destinations in the United States don't do enough to keep explicit content from kids, the Parents Television Council said in a report.

The advocacy group, which monitors decency issues, evaluated the child appropriateness of four online video portals: Hulu, Comcast's Fancast, AOL's Slashcontrol and AT&T's U-verse. None received a better grade than a "D."

The study looked at home pages and 602 videos over a three-week period. The council found that standards are more lenient online than on broadcast television, that content ratings were vague, and that content that may be unsuitable for children under 14 could be watched by young children.

Tim Winter, president of the Parents Television Council said the report proved that the four websites "are failing to protect kids on the Web."

"The content ratings and parental control devices (media corporations) tout as a solution to indecent material on television are not being applied to similarly indecent material on their websites," Winter said.

Mark Siegel, a spokesman for AT&T, said in a statement that through a program called Smart Limits, the company provides various tools that enable parents to limit the kinds of videos children can view on computers, TVs and cellphones.

Hulu (which is owned by NBC Universal, News Corp, The Walt Disney Co and Providence Equity Partners), Comcast and AOL didn't respond to requests for comment on the study.

The report calls on online providers to implement more effective ways of filtering out content unsuitable for children, including homepages with a parental control option and more explicit ratings.

The Parents Television Council chose the sites it did for the study, it said, because they're aggregators of commercially supported streaming video. It excluded sites that display their own content exclusively and those that focused on user-generated video.

Source:
www.parentstv.org/PTC/publications/reports/OnlineVideo/Study.pdf

Online video providers not protecting kids

NOT SAFE: A screencap of the Hulu website. According to a study, mainstream online video sites in the United States, such as Hulu, are not doing enough to keep explicit content from kids.

Mainstream online video destinations in the United States don't do enough to keep explicit content from kids, the Parents Television Council said in a report.

The advocacy group, which monitors decency issues, evaluated the child appropriateness of four online video portals: Hulu, Comcast's Fancast, AOL's Slashcontrol and AT&T's U-verse. None received a better grade than a "D."

The study looked at home pages and 602 videos over a three-week period. The council found that standards are more lenient online than on broadcast television, that content ratings were vague, and that content that may be unsuitable for children under 14 could be watched by young children.

Tim Winter, president of the Parents Television Council said the report proved that the four websites "are failing to protect kids on the Web."

"The content ratings and parental control devices (media corporations) tout as a solution to indecent material on television are not being applied to similarly indecent material on their websites," Winter said.

Mark Siegel, a spokesman for AT&T, said in a statement that through a program called Smart Limits, the company provides various tools that enable parents to limit the kinds of videos children can view on computers, TVs and cellphones.

Hulu (which is owned by NBC Universal, News Corp, The Walt Disney Co and Providence Equity Partners), Comcast and AOL didn't respond to requests for comment on the study.

The report calls on online providers to implement more effective ways of filtering out content unsuitable for children, including homepages with a parental control option and more explicit ratings.

The Parents Television Council chose the sites it did for the study, it said, because they're aggregators of commercially supported streaming video. It excluded sites that display their own content exclusively and those that focused on user-generated video.

Source:
www.parentstv.org/PTC/publications/reports/OnlineVideo/Study.pdf

Online video providers not protecting kids

NOT SAFE: A screencap of the Hulu website. According to a study, mainstream online video sites in the United States, such as Hulu, are not doing enough to keep explicit content from kids.

Mainstream online video destinations in the United States don't do enough to keep explicit content from kids, the Parents Television Council said in a report.

The advocacy group, which monitors decency issues, evaluated the child appropriateness of four online video portals: Hulu, Comcast's Fancast, AOL's Slashcontrol and AT&T's U-verse. None received a better grade than a "D."

The study looked at home pages and 602 videos over a three-week period. The council found that standards are more lenient online than on broadcast television, that content ratings were vague, and that content that may be unsuitable for children under 14 could be watched by young children.

Tim Winter, president of the Parents Television Council said the report proved that the four websites "are failing to protect kids on the Web."

"The content ratings and parental control devices (media corporations) tout as a solution to indecent material on television are not being applied to similarly indecent material on their websites," Winter said.

Mark Siegel, a spokesman for AT&T, said in a statement that through a program called Smart Limits, the company provides various tools that enable parents to limit the kinds of videos children can view on computers, TVs and cellphones.

Hulu (which is owned by NBC Universal, News Corp, The Walt Disney Co and Providence Equity Partners), Comcast and AOL didn't respond to requests for comment on the study.

The report calls on online providers to implement more effective ways of filtering out content unsuitable for children, including homepages with a parental control option and more explicit ratings.

The Parents Television Council chose the sites it did for the study, it said, because they're aggregators of commercially supported streaming video. It excluded sites that display their own content exclusively and those that focused on user-generated video.

Source:
www.parentstv.org/PTC/publications/reports/OnlineVideo/Study.pdf

WiMax vs. LTE: Which Will 'Win' in a Fast Deployment Cycle?

One of the biggest stories during the next year or so will be the rollout and subsequent marketing of 4G wireless networks.

It will be an interesting process as the two approaches – Long Term Evolution (LTE) and WiMax – vie for supremacy. The die already seems to be cast, however: WiMax, through Clearwire and its Clear service, is first out of the gate. LTE, however, through its use by Verizon and AT&T, seems positioned to be the dominant player when the dust settles.

WiMax suffered a bit of a blow earlier this month when Cisco decided not to build radios for the platform:

Technology is not an either/or game.The Cisco move clearly is not good news for WiMax, both in terms of image and because the vendor brings a lot to any table at which it chooses to sit. It’s also clear that WiMax will not be as big as LTE. All that said, however, it is apparent that WiMax remains a significant wireless networking force.

It is important to remember that the platform that comes in second in such a massive market will still be very successful. There are, for instance, secondary and specialty niches:

…WiMax is making strides with at least one significant niche category: smart grid networking. Earth2Tech reports that startup Arcadian Networks has released the AE20r gateway, a WiMax-focused device. The story says that Arcadian, which owns spectrum in the middle of the country, sells smart grid services to utilities. The story notes other vendors in the smart grid/WiMax arena, including Grid Net, General Electric, Alvarion and National Grid.

To be sure, Clearwire is not backing down:

Clearwire seems to be at the center of cable’s move to mobilize voice and advanced mobilized applications. FierceWireless, in a general report about Clearwire’s progress, said that the company plans to introduce a WiMax-enabled smartphone during 2010. The aim, according to CEO Bill Morrow, is to have the device in the field during the second half of the year. The story says that Sprint is planning 3G/4G phones, also by the end of 2010.

On the other side of town -- or of the R&D lab hallway -- is LTE. While WiMax was first out of the gate, the LTE sector is making up for lost time:

The LTE trial and test phase is white hot.

Driven by the increase in demand caused by fixed-rate data plans, coupled with the popularity of the iPhone and other advanced devices, the pace of testing of one of the two flavors of 4G technology, Long Term Evolution (LTE), is accelerating.

LTE is particularly active on the international front. ABI Research says that as of the end of September, 100 mobile networks were holding trials or were set to start. More than 40 of the trials are ongoing in the Asia-Pacific region – led by Japan and South Korea, with 33 contracts awarded. ABI Research says that though the first networks won’t start commercial operation until the end of next year, a robust 32.6 million subscribers will be served by LTE by 2013. The pressure is so great that many operators are taking the interim step of upgrading 3G networks to High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) status.

The stage was set once AT&T and, especially, Verizon made their choices:

Details are emerging on Verizon Wireless’s LTE rollout. Softpedia reports that the carrier, in one configuration, will offer per-user data speeds of 5 to 12 megabits per second (Mbps). The system will support video sharing, surveillance, conferencing and streaming. The story runs through the other advantages that Verizon Wireless is touting, and some of the challenges to older technologies that it supposedly alleviates.

The interesting thing is that LTE and WiMax are fairly close from the technical point of view. That means that it is theoretically possible for differences to be overcome and competition to become a thing of the past. While possible, it is thought unlikely:

On one hand, the battle for the future of 4G between LTE and WiMax will be fully joined. However, both are IP-based and use Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) and, experts say, are relatively close on the telecommunications family tree. Indeed, the biggest difference may concern the other IP: intellectual property. Despite the maneuvering today, it is possible that in a few years the two will blend together.

The next year or so will be a good deal of fun for folks who like mano-a-mano competition, price pressure, glitzy ads -- and high-speed wireless networks. At the end of the day, it almost certainly is destined to end up as expected:

LTE will be the top dog, with WiMax a strong supporting player.

WiMax vs. LTE: Which Will 'Win' in a Fast Deployment Cycle?

One of the biggest stories during the next year or so will be the rollout and subsequent marketing of 4G wireless networks.

It will be an interesting process as the two approaches – Long Term Evolution (LTE) and WiMax – vie for supremacy. The die already seems to be cast, however: WiMax, through Clearwire and its Clear service, is first out of the gate. LTE, however, through its use by Verizon and AT&T, seems positioned to be the dominant player when the dust settles.

WiMax suffered a bit of a blow earlier this month when Cisco decided not to build radios for the platform:

Technology is not an either/or game.The Cisco move clearly is not good news for WiMax, both in terms of image and because the vendor brings a lot to any table at which it chooses to sit. It’s also clear that WiMax will not be as big as LTE. All that said, however, it is apparent that WiMax remains a significant wireless networking force.

It is important to remember that the platform that comes in second in such a massive market will still be very successful. There are, for instance, secondary and specialty niches:

…WiMax is making strides with at least one significant niche category: smart grid networking. Earth2Tech reports that startup Arcadian Networks has released the AE20r gateway, a WiMax-focused device. The story says that Arcadian, which owns spectrum in the middle of the country, sells smart grid services to utilities. The story notes other vendors in the smart grid/WiMax arena, including Grid Net, General Electric, Alvarion and National Grid.

To be sure, Clearwire is not backing down:

Clearwire seems to be at the center of cable’s move to mobilize voice and advanced mobilized applications. FierceWireless, in a general report about Clearwire’s progress, said that the company plans to introduce a WiMax-enabled smartphone during 2010. The aim, according to CEO Bill Morrow, is to have the device in the field during the second half of the year. The story says that Sprint is planning 3G/4G phones, also by the end of 2010.

On the other side of town -- or of the R&D lab hallway -- is LTE. While WiMax was first out of the gate, the LTE sector is making up for lost time:

The LTE trial and test phase is white hot.

Driven by the increase in demand caused by fixed-rate data plans, coupled with the popularity of the iPhone and other advanced devices, the pace of testing of one of the two flavors of 4G technology, Long Term Evolution (LTE), is accelerating.

LTE is particularly active on the international front. ABI Research says that as of the end of September, 100 mobile networks were holding trials or were set to start. More than 40 of the trials are ongoing in the Asia-Pacific region – led by Japan and South Korea, with 33 contracts awarded. ABI Research says that though the first networks won’t start commercial operation until the end of next year, a robust 32.6 million subscribers will be served by LTE by 2013. The pressure is so great that many operators are taking the interim step of upgrading 3G networks to High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) status.

The stage was set once AT&T and, especially, Verizon made their choices:

Details are emerging on Verizon Wireless’s LTE rollout. Softpedia reports that the carrier, in one configuration, will offer per-user data speeds of 5 to 12 megabits per second (Mbps). The system will support video sharing, surveillance, conferencing and streaming. The story runs through the other advantages that Verizon Wireless is touting, and some of the challenges to older technologies that it supposedly alleviates.

The interesting thing is that LTE and WiMax are fairly close from the technical point of view. That means that it is theoretically possible for differences to be overcome and competition to become a thing of the past. While possible, it is thought unlikely:

On one hand, the battle for the future of 4G between LTE and WiMax will be fully joined. However, both are IP-based and use Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) and, experts say, are relatively close on the telecommunications family tree. Indeed, the biggest difference may concern the other IP: intellectual property. Despite the maneuvering today, it is possible that in a few years the two will blend together.

The next year or so will be a good deal of fun for folks who like mano-a-mano competition, price pressure, glitzy ads -- and high-speed wireless networks. At the end of the day, it almost certainly is destined to end up as expected:

LTE will be the top dog, with WiMax a strong supporting player.

WiMax vs. LTE: Which Will 'Win' in a Fast Deployment Cycle?

One of the biggest stories during the next year or so will be the rollout and subsequent marketing of 4G wireless networks.

It will be an interesting process as the two approaches – Long Term Evolution (LTE) and WiMax – vie for supremacy. The die already seems to be cast, however: WiMax, through Clearwire and its Clear service, is first out of the gate. LTE, however, through its use by Verizon and AT&T, seems positioned to be the dominant player when the dust settles.

WiMax suffered a bit of a blow earlier this month when Cisco decided not to build radios for the platform:

Technology is not an either/or game.The Cisco move clearly is not good news for WiMax, both in terms of image and because the vendor brings a lot to any table at which it chooses to sit. It’s also clear that WiMax will not be as big as LTE. All that said, however, it is apparent that WiMax remains a significant wireless networking force.

It is important to remember that the platform that comes in second in such a massive market will still be very successful. There are, for instance, secondary and specialty niches:

…WiMax is making strides with at least one significant niche category: smart grid networking. Earth2Tech reports that startup Arcadian Networks has released the AE20r gateway, a WiMax-focused device. The story says that Arcadian, which owns spectrum in the middle of the country, sells smart grid services to utilities. The story notes other vendors in the smart grid/WiMax arena, including Grid Net, General Electric, Alvarion and National Grid.

To be sure, Clearwire is not backing down:

Clearwire seems to be at the center of cable’s move to mobilize voice and advanced mobilized applications. FierceWireless, in a general report about Clearwire’s progress, said that the company plans to introduce a WiMax-enabled smartphone during 2010. The aim, according to CEO Bill Morrow, is to have the device in the field during the second half of the year. The story says that Sprint is planning 3G/4G phones, also by the end of 2010.

On the other side of town -- or of the R&D lab hallway -- is LTE. While WiMax was first out of the gate, the LTE sector is making up for lost time:

The LTE trial and test phase is white hot.

Driven by the increase in demand caused by fixed-rate data plans, coupled with the popularity of the iPhone and other advanced devices, the pace of testing of one of the two flavors of 4G technology, Long Term Evolution (LTE), is accelerating.

LTE is particularly active on the international front. ABI Research says that as of the end of September, 100 mobile networks were holding trials or were set to start. More than 40 of the trials are ongoing in the Asia-Pacific region – led by Japan and South Korea, with 33 contracts awarded. ABI Research says that though the first networks won’t start commercial operation until the end of next year, a robust 32.6 million subscribers will be served by LTE by 2013. The pressure is so great that many operators are taking the interim step of upgrading 3G networks to High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) status.

The stage was set once AT&T and, especially, Verizon made their choices:

Details are emerging on Verizon Wireless’s LTE rollout. Softpedia reports that the carrier, in one configuration, will offer per-user data speeds of 5 to 12 megabits per second (Mbps). The system will support video sharing, surveillance, conferencing and streaming. The story runs through the other advantages that Verizon Wireless is touting, and some of the challenges to older technologies that it supposedly alleviates.

The interesting thing is that LTE and WiMax are fairly close from the technical point of view. That means that it is theoretically possible for differences to be overcome and competition to become a thing of the past. While possible, it is thought unlikely:

On one hand, the battle for the future of 4G between LTE and WiMax will be fully joined. However, both are IP-based and use Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) and, experts say, are relatively close on the telecommunications family tree. Indeed, the biggest difference may concern the other IP: intellectual property. Despite the maneuvering today, it is possible that in a few years the two will blend together.

The next year or so will be a good deal of fun for folks who like mano-a-mano competition, price pressure, glitzy ads -- and high-speed wireless networks. At the end of the day, it almost certainly is destined to end up as expected:

LTE will be the top dog, with WiMax a strong supporting player.