I was invited to Singtel and Ericsson event at Singapore Comcentre to showcase the LTE (Long Term Revolution) Technology. There were a few bloggers and the media at the event. We were told that there will be a “LIVE” Demo on what LTE can do.
The venue is an interesting make-shift room outside the Comcentre. The host for today is none other than Glenn Ong. Have met him several times on Singtel events. It is nice to see him again.
Before the event started, we had a wonderful time mingling with the people and getting to know one another.
There were free flow of food and drinks to fill our stomach 🙂 . Finally, the event began. Glenn was reading from his script on all the technical jargon of what we are going to witness.
But before the demo began, we had the honor to have Mr. Yuen Kuan Moon, Singtel Exec VP of Consumer, and Mr. Fadi Pharaon, President and Country Manager, Ericsson Singapore & Brunei to introduce more about the LTE Technology.
Ok, here is the demo. They are using an emulator on a laptop to simulate calls. BTW, what you see on the video is actual footage. Very smooth.
So, what do you think? BTW, this is Sarah. She is using a earpiece and the tablet with a phone emulator.
And with the demo, Singtel revealed its plan for the 42Mpbs network that will be available later part of the year.
Notice that the dongle (the blue one) is quite big. This is an actual LTE dongle.
The next segment is on Live gaming. While the demonstrators were downloading the games, the people from the media were able to field some questions.
Many (like me) were interested in the pricing. Unfortunately, nothing was revealed as the focus is on the demo.
The roll out timeline for LTE Technology is also not fixed (BTW, 42Mbps is actually an upgrade of 21Mbps and actually not considered as LTE). An idea LTE bandwidth should be 100Mbps or above.
Next, someone asked about Wimax and Singtel is quick to mention that Wimax is available now but they choose LTE (which is HSPA oriented) over Wimax.
Then, someone asked about the Fibre Optic cable as compared to LTE. LTE is wireless while the other is hard cable. Therefore, Singtel answered that LTE is catered (more) for the mobile. However, they should be able to seamlessly cross over.
When asked ever if there is any plans to build (or have already built) LTE Technology based smartphones, Singtel mentioned that they are engaging with World Wide phone makers.
According to Singtel, LTE should be about 2.7x more efficient than HSPA.
Finally, the Game Segment…
Here is the video..
With this, the demo ended. However, we were able to get up close and personal with people from Singtel and Ericsson. In my opinion, the 3D maps of the RWS (Resort World Sentosa) is quite cool.
As you can see, the press people are doing their job.
And here is the dongle.
And presenting, the Singtel Girls
Feel free to comments and if you have questions on LTE that was not answered, I may request Singtel to provide one.
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