Can you hear me now? Verizon experiences LTE ‘growing pains’
Remember when the original iPhone came out sans 3G and lots of self-described smart people pooh-poohed Apple’s smartphone because it wasn’t cutting edge? Ultimately, Cupertino’s wisdom in making that decision was borne out because in 2007 3G just wasn’t there. We’re seeing a similar chain of events playing out now.
Hey, who wants to pay $300 or $400 for a smartphone with a laggy version of Android (i.e. not Ice Cream Sandwich) and little chance of any meaningful software updates that runs on a network that’s both patchy and unreliable? If you’ve watched any television over the last couple months, you’d think it was the right thing to do — a no brainer, slam-dunk.
Well, the “no brain” part just might be on the mark. GigaOM is reporting Verizon’s ongoing LTE outages, which the company calls “unforeseeable.”
“Being the pioneers, we’re going to experience some growing pains,” said Mike Haberman, VP, network engineering. “These issues we’ve been experiencing are certainly regrettable but they were unforeseeable.”
Really, seriously and truly? My LTE wireless network math might be unsophisticated, but when you add a kerjillion new handsets to a patchy and nowhere near finished network the result can hardly be described unforeseeable.
“Our goal is to ensure that our 4G network meets the same high standard that our 3G network does,” added Haberman. “We’re not there yet, but we’ll get there.”
Erm, forgive my cynicism, Mr Haberson, but your company’s goal has been to sell as many 4G handsets with the concomitant two-year contract (a.k.a. lock in) as possible and to work out the problems later.
Yes, I’d love to have an LTE iPhone, but I’ll leave the early adopter blues to the fandroids…
What’s your take?
via VentureBeat
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January 4th, 2012
I was one of those early adopters (by no means am I a fandroid) who tried the HTC Thunderbolt as soon as Verizon announced their LTE network, and what a mistake that was. I returned the joke phone after two days. My point being that LTE was such a new service that the phones and service were hardly worth the huge asking price. In the past year, they may have made many adjustments to the networks and devices, but I still think that they have a long way to go. I’d love an LTE iPhone as well, but lets hope it isn’t a joke like many of the LTE phones these days.