Nokia et al to throw an LTE cat among the Wimax pigeons

The BBC is reporting that Nokia has signed a deal with Sony Ericsson, NEC and Alacatel-Lucent as part of an ambitious plan to roll out a 4G wireless system. It’s mostly the dry legal stuff about licensing that’s being hammered out just now, as the companies have formed a licensing framework for their 4G patents, called Long Term Evolution (LTE).

More exciting is the fact that the deal will help bolster LTE, which is in direct competition with the Intel backed Wimax standard which is another possible route that 4G connectivity could take. But what exactly is 4G? Well, the easy answer is, it’s 3G but one better. Basically, as far as LTE goes anyway, the new connectivity standard is faster than 3G and capable of long distance wireless tomfoolery (much like Wimax then).

Nokia and its LTE cohorts are hoping to make LTE the standard for mobile phones, as well as laptops with a view to replacing wi-fi before long. The companies are aiming to keep LTE royalty payments at a bare minimum so that the tech is more widely adopted than Wimax which, according to Intel’s chief executive, Paul Otellini, is set to be used by 10 million people within the next year, rising to “hundreds of millions two years after that”.

Looks like we have another format war at hand in the ever more competitive wireless field. If the result will mean I will be able to sit on the beach and watch full length movies streamed from the internet to my phone, then let battle commence.

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