Nortel Networks might be waiting with bated breath to find out Wednesday morning if it has won Verizon Wireless’s beauty contest to be its LTE supplier, but it probably has another carrier on the line for 4G: T-Mobile International.
That is, if its real-world demo at Mobile World Congress and ongoing trialing stretching back to the fall is any indication. Nortel in conjunction with partner LG Electronics has connected up a live LTE network during MWC with T-Mobile’s offices in Bonn, Germany. Visitors to T-Mobile, Nortel and LG booths at MWC are able to see, talk to and play games with LTE users on the other end via streaming video.
T-Mobile only last fall officially decided to go with LTE as its 4G iteration; its American subsidiary is also going the LTE route. It’s been in trials with Nortel and LG from the beginning, and now that the pressure seems to be on to bring LTE to market quicker than expected, perhaps an official partner announcement is not too far in the future.
Nortel’s not the only one showing off LTE under real-world conditions. Motorola Inc. has been driving around Barcelona in an LTE-equipped van to demo its own live ad hoc network.