The march of wireless progress

Area data providers prepare to upgrade to 4G LTE, significantly boosting speeds

By Jordan Novet / The Bulletin

Published: June 25. 2012 4:00AM PST

Alex McDougall / The Bulletin

AT&T operates several cellular sites in Bend, including this tower near the intersection of Southeast Third Street and Reed Market Road. The company recently added capacity to 11 of its cell sites in Bend and three in Sunriver, a spokeswoman said. Soon, cellular service providers will send out faster 4G LTE signals through their cell towers in Central Oregon.

Illustration by Andy Zeigert / The Bulletin

Internet access in Central Oregon has gotten faster for some BendBroadband customers with the next generation of wireless service, and cellphone users should see similar acceleration when their providers make upgrades in the region. Smartphones and desktop computers have their differences. But fundamentally, users of both will be able to take advantage of fourth-generation long-term-evolution, or 4G LTE, service. BendBroadband, the Bend-based Internet, cable and phone service provider, upgraded its wireless Internet signal to 4G LTE last year, offering it to customers for the first time.

Those who have traded in their current wireless routers for new ones capable of receiving the signal are cruising the Web at higher speeds than ever. The changes wont affect BendBroadband customers who use wired connections to access broadband Internet. Cell carriers are at different stages in the race to start circulating a 4G LTE signal in different parts of the country. In Central Oregon, none has begun offering it so far, although at least two, Verizon and AT&T, say its on its way. Verizon has rolled out the signal to Salem and Eugene in the past two months, and its coming soon to Bend, spokeswoman Erica OConnor wrote in an email, but she did not have a date. This month and last month, AT&T has upgraded cell sites in Bend and Sunriver to increase the capacity of its existing 4G service in surrounding areas, and still faster LTE service will be on the way to Central Oregon eventually, said Anne Marshall, a company spokeswoman. U.S. Cellular is introducing 4G LTE to Oregon in the second half of this year, with the Medford area coming first, according to a spokeswoman and a company news release. T-Mobile plans to deploy its 4G LTE signal in a majority of its top 50 markets by the end of 2013, and Sprint intends to upgrade its entire network to 4G LTE by that time. The major carriers define 4G and LTE in different ways, because they use different technologies. Generally speaking, though, the terms indicate faster service. The only thing different is (that) their frequency band is different than ours, said Eric Anderson, BendBroadbands director of wireless engineering. When the FCC licensed off spectrum, we purchased (a) different band than Verizon purchased. The changes are part of wireless providers years long quest to speed up service and increase network capacity. Analog wireless phone service gave way to digital phone transmission over circuits in the early 1990s, according to the Federal Communications Commission. In the 2000s, with third-generation wireless service, it became possible to transmit data in packets, in addition to phone conversations, said Tom Peters, chief engineer of the FCCs Wireless Telecommunications Bureau in an FCC video. Now, he said, more users are uploading and downloading data over the Internet, and the fourth-generation service is accelerating. Newer technologies are able to use the network resources more efficiently and give more people more bandwidth, more speed, more of the time, Peters said. Neither wireless broadband nor cell users can take advantage of the tower upgrades right away. They require some action. Just as BendBroadband wireless Internet customers need to get new routers to access the 4G LTE signal, cellphone users wont be able to use the higher-speed service unless they get phones capable of doing so. You can think of it like AM and FM radio, said Marshall of AT&T. You have to have the right band to receive the transmission. Providers, too, have been busy.

Cellphone providers are upgrading their towers to allow the faster service to flow to their customers devices. For BendBroadband, preparing for the 3G-to-4G change last year entailed building a new core network in the companys Vault data center, installing a new interface to transmit between the core network and the companys towers and affixing radio antennas to towers that can send the 4G LTE signal to customers. It was a very expensive process, since we were one of the first in North America, Anderson said. Customers who use BendBroadbands wireless Internet could miss out on service if they dont call the company and get a new router to replace the old one by Saturday. Thats the day BendBroadband will turn off the 3G network, Anderson said. Later, capacity will increase when the company adjusts those last 3G-broadcasting radio antennas and wires them to send out 4G signals, he said. Cellphone users should not have to worry about losing service. Those devices not equipped to pick up 4G LTE signals wont necessarily stop working. We continue to support all the phones in our network that our customers are using, Marshall said. Reporter: 541-633-2117, jnovet@bendbulletin.com