With the VZW and AT&T buying up 700 MHz for LTE, I would assume 4G is close at hand.I was at CTIA and witnessed 30 MBPS up and down.Thats fast; however I spoke to one of Nortels engineers and they believe they will be at 100 MBPS up and down by next year.That would be this year now.A Verizon rep told me they will be rolling out LTE late this year (2009).100 MBPS would be like downloading and uploading an entire HD movie to your phone in less than a minute.During every recession and even the depression technology kept rolling.Technology cares not for the woes of mans finances and keeps advancing.So, I predict the future will be fast!Communication and entertainment companies will become competitors.Verizon and AT&T will have the capability to wirelessly give us all our entertainment and communication needs.Broadcast TV will be sent to our phones as well as our living rooms.Next; we will spray our TVs onto any surface, morph our phones into watches, solar powered everything,and change the color of our phones with the push of a button.Shortly after that, 2012 the end game!However, technology cares not and will continue rolling.

[from Pete]

I don't believe companies will be merging together. Competition creates a flow of money. Plus I believe the general public likes having a choice and the feeling of different companies fighting for their business. The way the industry is headed right now Data is the new money maker. Phones with extra features are what is selling the most because that is what reps are pushing to make themselves money. Technology is what will save us from financial hardtimes, and when something is very money driven it moves quickly. The bottom line is we are in a great industry!

[from Mr. Grimm]

I could see Sprint being bought out by Verizon in the next few years or so....

[from GBurge09]

Corporate mergers have not been beneficial for me. When Alltel was consumed by Verizon I lost coverage. My wife had Verizon through work and had to go outside to make calls. I had great coverage but now I too have to go outside for calls. All they did was reap the benefits of the Alltel name and their customers but did not keep Alltel's highly rated (Consumer's Report) services.

[from Brad]

All I can say is that besides of the economic downturn we are dealing with mobile industry is still at its best

[from JaniceA]

With Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile going to LTE 4G, CDMA will pretty much disappear in the US, and probably NA. Supposedly even MetroPCS is planning to migrate to LTE. Sprint has already launched WiFi 4G. I think VZW will be 'the one' since they are already part of Vodafone, a large European GSM provider. Once VZW deploys 4G LTE, your phone will truly be globally usable. Further, smart phones running true OS like Windows, Android, Palm, etc. will really take off once 4G is widely available. In the case of AT&T, they will probably have the best merging of Internet services with cell phones because of their large DSL market. If anybody folds, it will be Sprint. I think LTE will prove to be better than WiFi. Did I mention touch screen will be the dominant interface? Even with computers, touch, or virtual, keyboards (like in _Iron Man_ and _Star Trek TNG_) will become very common. I love my EnV Touch keyboard, since I text a lot, but soon a real keyboard will be lame. For example, the LG Versa gives you the option of attaching a keyboard, but the phone works very well in full touchboard mode. Rght, there's that other phone from the people who do the MacOS.

[from geishaslave]

Posted by geishaslave on 01 Mar 2010 13:57 PM:



Did I mention touch screen will be the dominant interface?

Interesting posit. I have the Env Touch and prefer the real keyboard. The larger size gives it more versitility and functions. A touch screen keyboard will always be smaller than a fold out keyboard (but not necessarily a slide down one) even if the screen is full phone size because it has to allow for a viewing of what is being typed.

[from Brad]

I can t ever see everybody going touch screen as there will always be a segment that wants things simple with big keys and something easy to see. That said, I think touch will be the dominant hardware design over the next few years.

[from ThinkLGRep-wyhs0h1s31jdpt3p]

WiFi has been around for quite some time. You mean WiMax correct ??? Besides Sprint the other "Big" 3 are going ahead with LTE. Does anyone know the price to make a CDMA tower to GSM (or vice versa) ??? Or how about WiMax to LTE (or vice versa) ???

[from Erik B.]

LTE is the wave of the future

[from ThinkLGRep-cb7pzkmxoabwfle7]

So let's see......given the size of the Big "2" wireless providers, I doubt that they will ever be involved in another mega merger. So it seems that the only option for future carrier mergers would beSprint / T Mobile. Obviously there are different technologies now, but what will the landscape look like in 3-5 years.

There is no future for either carrier on their own.....AT&T and VZW are quickly shutting them down.

[from Shonne Nothen]

I don't see a merger between the any in the big four legally feasible. A merger would give the company to great of market share and would likely be shot down by anti-trust laws.

[from JeremyP]

I don't think there's any chance that VZW would buy out Sprint because there is no way Verizon would adopt Sprints plans or way of business (easy on credit, ATAM, ect...) which is why a lot of people are with Sprint now-a-days anyways. Sprint is currently growing after their HUGE downfall when they merged with Nextel. It would take a catastrophy to slow them down now, imo.

[from ThinkLGRep-he0ic7xq3r12omxz]

Totally Agree, VZW has no interest in Sprint. I think the interesting thing will be the "band consolidation project" which will allow Sprint to move the majority of its CDMA services to 800 mhz -- which will penetrate much better... and then finally get rid of nextel... or at least until there is quad band nextel devices that will work on like 4g maybe... who knows...

‰ÛÏThere is beachfront property in 800 MHz that we can use for CDMA,‰Û Hesse said, adding it can be used for better coverage in cities and into buildings and help the carrier drive down in-market roaming costs. Those costs are associated with customers that might roam onto a competitor‰Ûas network even though they are in a market where Sprint Nextel offers service. Hesse noted that those roaming charges used to go predominately to Alltel Wireless, but are now going to rival Verizon Wireless, which purchased most of Alltel‰Ûas assets.

[from ThinkLGRep-Jordan]

AT&T is going down!

and cell phones will be iPads and Galaxy Tabs with face time soon.

[from ThinkLGRep-abbefh7eh20nf4p]

Actually the easiest merge would be if AT&T took over T-Mobile because of the SIMS requirements for their phone units. As for whether it would happen, only time will tell. If you look at the way all these companies came into existence... they started with Bellsouth. So it has been at least 10 years since the FCC forced that split. I would say research the tenure on that agreement. If you notice many of the smaller companies are being swallowed up again.

[from ThinkLGRep-31exqcrzar4r9hy0]

Forcasts:

2 years: Metro PCS is in the Top 4

3-5 years: The majority of plans give voice as a add-on no change feature.

[from Franchise66]

Posted by Franchise66 on 16 Dec 2010 04:33 AM:

Forcasts:

2 years: Metro PCS is in the Top 4

3-5 years: The majority of plans give voice as a add-on no change feature.

I concur

[from ThinkLGRep-5oc9l1k6h2hg1yy4]

I don't think that the companies or manufacturers will all completely merge together. There has to be some variation within the market, because sonsumers like to have options! Competition helps to keep prices down.

[from ThinkLGRep-3s5vg5py09bow0vl]

To have a Voice calling feature as a plan add-on is the way of the future, sooner or later calling minutes won't be the main feature of a price plan....

[from Alissa]

Cool

[from TumbleWeed]

thats what i was thinking. there is always going to be at least a small percentage that doesnt want anything "fancy" just make and get calls with big numbers they can see.

[from ThinkLGRep-6dgkszvgdqb4k85p]

Posted by GBurge09 on 29 Jul 2009 14:32 PM:

I could see Sprint being bought out by Verizon in the next few years or so....

I completely agree, if the AT & T merger with T-Mobile is successful!

[from JoshuaFabri]

I Agree completely with you. Once 4G is completed any 4G capable device will be able to go international. Hopefully as this happens international phone plans will be priced reasonably. We shall have to wait and see. Verizon has already gotten many metro areas to 4G and should be the entire U.S. by the end of this year.

[from ThinkLGRep-o6zk3nc1yh3b7kqx]

Posted by ThinkLGRep-wyhs0h1s31jdpt3p on 14 Sep 2010 14:27 PM:

I can t ever see everybody going touch screen as there will always be a segment that wants things simple with big keys and something easy to see. That said, I think touch will be the dominant hardware design over the next few years.

Probably, and there is even a couple of folks who want no cell phone. The number of thoose that do not accept the latest technical developments is rather small I think. [from SallyG]