China Telecom, KDDI and Verizon Wireless join GSMA as mobile operators commit to LTE

BARCELONA, SPAIN: The GSMA announced that China Telecom, KDDI and Verizon Wireless have gained membership to the GSMA following their commitment to deploy commercial services based on Long-Term Evolution (LTE), the next-generation wireless technology for mobile broadband.

China Telecom, KDDI, and Verizon Wireless are three of the world’s largest CDMA operators and will begin the commercial deployments of LTE as early as 2010. LTE, when combined with the expansive footprint of these operators’ existing Mobile Broadband services, will deliver high-speed services to over 150 million customers over the next three years. Qualcomm has also joined the GSMA as an associate member and will work with the operators to aid the smooth integration of LTE with existing mobile broadband technologies.

“With its compelling, high-speed and cost-effective network architecture, LTE is bringing the GSM and CDMA communities together. We are delighted that China Telecom, KDDI, and Verizon Wireless have joined the GSMA along with Qualcomm, and will be among the first operators to launch commercial LTE services,” said Alex Sinclair, Chief Technology and Strategy Officer at the GSMA.

“The rapid rise in demand for Mobile Broadband devices, applications and services is driving both GSM and CDMA operators to evolve their network infrastructures and embrace new, cutting-edge technologies, and LTE is widely regarded as ‘the’ Mobile Broadband technology that will be adopted by the vast majority of mobile operators globally.”