business

The need for speed is driving a sweeping upgrade of Twin Cities cellular networks.

As consumers buy more smart phones, iPads and other portable devices, demand for mobile data service is expected to rise sharply.

To keep up, Verizon Wireless, AT&T and Sprint are or soon will be installing faster, higher-capacity 4G (fourth generation) networks in the Twin Cities. By late this year or early in 2011, they will make Web browsing by phone as fast as using a wired connection.

The consumer cost of bringing high-speed Internet to those on the move isn't clear. The prices of the 4G services, as well as the cost of new phones that will be required to use them, haven't been disclosed.

But, for consumers who hunger for a truly interactive portable Internet experience, 4G will deliver services such as two-way videoconferencing or high-definition movies to cell phones and other devices with cellular modems. Both are data-hungry applications that require a faster network if many people use them at once.

"This will put the full power of the Internet, at full speed, in the hands of consumers," said Roger Entner, head of telecom research at the Nielsen Co. in New York. "You can have the same Internet experience on the road that you have at home. That happened for voice calls quite a while ago, but now it's happening for data."

While 4G networks are mostly about data services, they also could vastly improve cell-phone sound quality by expanding the number of audible frequencies that are carried over cellular networks, Entner said. Today, cellular voice calls cut off the highest and lowest frequencies to minimize the load on the cell networks.

"With 4G, you'll be able to take your phone to a concert and have your sick spouse at home listen to the music and get the full concert experience," Entner said.

The potential of 4G has piqued the interest of some Twin Cities consumers.

"I would be very interested in 4G cell service, with the caveat being price, of course," said Chester Jacobsen, a smart-phone user in Richfield who considers it "critical" to get data at high speed when he's traveling.

George Ritzinger of Eden Prairie says that he'd seriously consider substituting 4G cellular data service for his cable TV-based Internet service at two homes, providing 4G is equally fast but less expensive.

"Ideally the savings [from dropping cable] would more than offset the likely higher cost for 4G cell service," Ritzinger said.

Others are not so sure they'll like 4G.

"While the increase in speed might be useful, it might not be worth the cost if I have to replace my Palm Pre and go through the learning curve on new equipment," said Jim Bianco of Minnetonka.

There is potential for customers to be disappointed by 4G because initially it will be available only in cities, said Dan Shey, an analyst at ABI Research in Oyster Bay, N.Y. Elsewhere, users will find themselves back on today's slower 3G networks.

"When people go off the 4G network to 3G, it will be a different experience," Shey said. "Will it meet customers' expectations? If it doesn't, some might be disappointed."

Verizon Wireless is upgrading its network equipment in the Twin Cities in preparation for introducing 4G service here. The 4G service is expected to provide about eight times faster download speeds than the existing 3G network, said Brian Mecum, executive director of Verizon's Great Plains region, based in Bloomington.

"We tend to be conservative, so we're saying that 5 to 12 million bits per second download speeds will be the average," Mecum said. Today's average is 600,000 to 1.4 million bits per second. "The reality is that 4G will entice more and more people to use smart devices and smart phones."

Wires for wireless

To accommodate the faster data speed, Verizon is replacing the copper telephone wires that link its cellular antennas to a central call-routing center. In their place will be higher-capacity fiber-optic cables. While Verizon won't say when 4G will come to the Twin Cities, it has said it will introduce 4G service in 25 to 30 cities later this year and that it will offer nationwide 4G coverage by 2013.

Sprint says it will offer service in the Twin Cities this year, and that its 4G network is being built by partner Clearwire Corp. of Kirkland, Wash., which will use the same network to provide computer-based wireless Internet service in several suburbs, including Brooklyn Park.

Nationally, Clearwire has built the 4G network in 28 metro markets, but none is used by Sprint cell-phone customers yet because the company just introduced its first 4G smart phone, the HTC Evo 4G. The price of the phone wasn't disclosed, but it is backward-compatible with 3G networks if a customer travels out of the 4G coverage area.

Sprint says its 4G data speeds will typically be 3 million to 6 million bits per second, compared with today's typical 3G speeds of 700,000 to 800,000 bits per second.

AT&T says it will test its 4G network technology in several undisclosed cities this year, but won't offer service until 2011. T-Mobile is mum about its 4G plans, and instead is touting an upgrade of its existing 3G network to speeds that will be faster, but still less speedy than the 4G networks.

Cell-phone companies feel an urgency to upgrade to 4G because their business is shifting from voice calls to data services, Entner said. In addition, the 4G networks will be more economical for the cell phone companies to operate, because they will combine today's separate voice and data networks into a single all-digital network.

"With 4G networks, everybody on a cell phone will be using Internet phone calling, whether they realize it or not," Entner said.

Steve Alexander • 612-673-4553