Verizon LTEVerizon LTE

How will Verizon charge for services once voice is IP? Just by Gigbytes of usage?

The Verizon LTE truck was in town last week giving a road show on their 4G plans and seeking enterprise input for future applications. While they are still about a year away from having LTE running in 25-30 large metro areas, now is the right time to start planning for the next generation of cellular applications.What Verizon will be able to offer with their LTE network is:

* 5 Mbps-12 Mbps download, 2 Mbps-5 Mbps upload, with a latency of <30ms. Great for real-time, high bandwidth, interactive applications such as video conferencing and gaming.

* Nationwide licensed coverage with great in-building penetration thanks to their purchase of the 700Mhz spectrum and using LTE technology. Alaska appears to be the exception

* Enhanced security and portability through the implementation of a SIM with enhanced storage, 128 bit encryption, and mutual authentication

* Worldwide roaming since LTE is the widely adopted next generation 3GPP standard

* Mass deployment of end devices thanks to IPv6 addressing and IMSI based identifiers

Some potential applications include:

* Uploading pictures and movies in near real time. Camera will not need as much internal storage.

* Connecting all machines. Machine to machine communication will become the predominant use of bandwidth.

* Enhanced security options through real time notifications, biometric based authentication, and profile history.

* Home health monitoring and tele-medicine.

Some outstanding questions remain though;

* How will Verizon charge for services once voice is IP? Just by Gigbytes of usage?

* Will Verizon and their smart phone partners offer wideband audio so that we can truly give up a hard phone?

* Will the initial deployment for 4G be for data, and smartphones will lag as in the past? Or will the smart-phone makers jump all over 4G?

* Will Femtocells still be an option, especially early on when complete coverage will be lagging?

All in all, it was good to further understand Verizon's LTE plan and I look forward to their rollout. For more information: lte.vzw.com.How will Verizon charge for services once voice is IP? Just by Gigbytes of usage?