Alltel, ranked fifth in the U.S. and also operating in Canada, announced today that it will use LTE (Long Term Evolution) to build out its 4G network. The deployment will take up to five years and is not expected to start this year. “Certainly there’s no money for 4G evolution anytime in our near-term plans, and so I think from a cash-flow perspective you should not expect to see us talking about 4G anytime at least in 2008,” said Chief Operating Officer Jeff Fox.
Alltel is the second U.S. CDMA-based network (after Verizon Wireless) to announce its support for the WiMAX competitor. GSM-based AT&T Mobility has also opted to deploy LTE. Things are starting to look grim for WiMAX in the U.S.