In a conference call to investors regarding first-quarter results yesterday, the President and CEO of the regional carrier Scott Ford along with COO Jeff Fox announced that the company was in the initial stages of planning for an eventual transition to LTE, which he also emphasized would not happen for at least three to five years due to lack of funding.
Both executives also made mention of the headstart that WiMax has in a comparitive sense and revealed plans for further discussions with the board of directors over the next two quarters regarding the selection, but added that there will be no further announcements from the company regarding 4G plans for the rest of the year.
This follows a recent test of CDMA EVDO Rev. A handoffs to LTE base stations and equipment that was attended by Alltel’s Vice President of Network Services, Chris Smith in which the executive commented positively on the development and demonstration of preliminary LTE equipment, which led some to speculate that Alltel was considering LTE, on top of the recent selection of the standard by Verizon and AT&T.
This would also facilitate roaming for the carrier as it is one of the largest regional carriers in the US and currently depends on Sprint and Verizon’s CDMA network for expanded voice and data coverage across the country.
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