TORONTO – Perhaps befitting an acronym that doesn’t refer to any actual technology, but more a state of mind, LTE is still a good two years away from deployment, Rogers Communications CEO Nadir Mohamed said Monday morning.
In the opening keynote speech to delegates of the Canadian Telecom Summit, Mohamed noted that early LTE adopter Verizon is making noises about delaying its push to the fourth generation assumed wireless standard, which simply means: “long-term-evolution”.
“We need faster speeds over HSPA,” (high speed packet access) added the CEO, noting there is still plenty of work to do with the existing wireless network by upgrading what they already have, but as for LTE, “It looks like it’s still a few years out,” he said.
The ecosystem of network, devices and apps are just not at the stage of development they need to be in order to think of LTE as a near term opportunity. And, Rogers is doing pretty well with the product lineup it already has, moving 360,000 smart phones out the door in the first quarter of 2009, ended March 31.
Mohamed used the speech to promoted the overall value of mobile and broadband (and mobile broadband) technology to Canadians, saying it’s not so much about being mobile, being able to talk and text to anyone, anywhere, like it has been, because it’s now getting well beyond that.
“It has everything to do with personalization,” he said.
“It’s unbelievable the transformation that has happened… and the disruptions that are happening and will continue to happen will be incredibly difficult.”
Rogers is at the forefront of those transformations right now, added Mohamed, pointing to the success of the Rogers Mobile Internet Stick in bringing broadband speeds (up to 7.2 Mbps) beyond the tether – and beyond wi-fi.
It, along with Rogers clients’ desire to receive text, e-mail and surf on their handhelds, has meant 20% of Rogers wireless revenues is now from data, growing at a pace of 43% a year, added the CEO.
In showing slides about the penetration of wired versus wireless broadband, Mohamed noted: “that distinction will no longer make sense in the future and that the prediction of mobile broadband adoption of three million Canadians by 2014 (by Ovum “Wireless Intelligence, Strategy Analytics”) will be “blown out of the water” as many more look to have broadband at their fingertips, wherever they are.
Mohamed also touched on network neutrality in his speech, adding Rogers doesn’t throttle traffic on its networks or block anything due to its content (unless the cops ask, of course). He re-iterated what Rogers execs have said in the past, that upstream P2P traffic has its own lane, in order to make the broadband experience work well for everyone.
“Without the ability to manage networks, we will not have a successful industry,” he said.
