FierceWireless Hosts Executive Luncheon with 4G Americas at Mobile World Congress

BELLEVUE, Wash. – With a 1000x data challenge posed to mobile service providers worldwide from customers using bandwidth hungry applications and services, the technical response to the challenge is 3GPP Release 10 and LTE-Advanced technology. FierceWireless will host The Road to LTE-Advanced Executive Luncheon with 4G Americas, a wireless industry trade association representing 3GPP mobile broadband technologies, on February 26, 2014 in Barcelona at Mobile World Congress.

LTE-Advanced is expected to be widely deployed by the end of 2015, and the technology will ramp up from that point to build upon the anticipated 450 LTE networks, including 261 LTE commercial networks today in 98 countries.  LTE-Advanced was first launched in July 2013 by SK Telecom and LG U+ in South Korea with capable devices and using carrier aggregation, a feature that allows service providers to combine disparate spectrum bands into bandwidth that will allow faster speeds and more efficient capacity. By the end of 2013, LTE-Advanced was deployed by a total of four operators, including KT Corp., also in South Korea, and EE in the UK.  It is expected that in the U.S.,the four major carriers—AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon and Sprint—will deploy LTE-Advanced based on 3GPP Release 10 standards in 2014.

LTE-Advanced subscriptions are forecast to reach half a billion worldwide by the end of 2018, representing 34% of the overall 1.47 billion LTE-related subscriptions—which is five times more than the number of LTE connections today—according to ABI Research.  By 2020, nearly 50% of all LTE subscriptions will be on LTE-Advanced networks according to Signals & Systems Telecom.

Chris Pearson, President of 4G Americas, will lend his expertise to the discussion at The Road to LTE-Advanced, along with Kris Rinne, Senior Vice President – Network and Product Planning, AT&T.  They will be joined by Jinsung Choi, Executive Vice President and Head of ICT R&D Division, KT Corp., Rasmus Hellberg, Senior Director, Technical Marketing, Qualcomm and Aicha Evans, VP, Platform Engineering Group, Intel.  The session will be moderated by Sue Marek, FierceWireless Editor-in-Chief.

“LTE-Advanced is the natural evolutionary step beyond LTE that operators worldwide are embracing to meet the 1000x mobile broadband data demand challenge,” stated Chris Pearson.  “LTE-Advanced, based on 3GPP Release 10, offers multiple new features and enhanced capabilities that help operators and their customers.”

The panel of industry experts will discuss the current status of LTE-Advanced globally and provide insights into the pros and cons of deploying the technology. Some of the features of LTE-Advanced include carrier aggregation, small cells, self-optimizing capabilities, enhanced inter-cell interference coordination and advanced MIMO (Multiple-Input Multiple-Output) antenna technology.

Date: Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Registration & Networking: 12:45pm – 1:00pm
Lunch & Program: 1:00pm – 2:00pm
Location: Fira Congress Hotel, Barcelona

Link to Registration and Event Details HERE

###

4G Americas is an industry trade organization composed of leading telecommunications service providers and manufacturers. The organization’s mission is to advocate for and foster the advancement and full capabilities of the 3GPP family of mobile broadband technologies, including LTE-Advanced, throughout the ecosystem’s networks, services, applications and wirelessly connected devices in the Americas. 4G Americas contributes to the success of 3GPP technologies and their place as the No. 1 technology in the Americas. 4G Americas is headquartered in Bellevue, Wash. More information is available at www.4gamericas.org.

4G Americas’ Board of Governors members include: Alcatel-Lucent, América Móvil, AT&T, Cable & Wireless, Cisco, CommScope, Entel, Ericsson, HP, Mavenir, Nokia Solutions and Networks, Openwave Mobility, Qualcomm, Rogers, T-Mobile USA and Telefónica.