DoCoMo to commercially rollout LTE in December 2010

DoCoMo is said to reveal its LTE roadmap at ITU Telecom World 2009 convention. According to DoCoMo's officials the company plans to commercially deploy LTE in December 2010. Below are some important bits of information about DoCoMo's LTE plans:

• Initially, LTE will overlap with company's 3G coverage to ensure service persistence
• Dual-mode 3G/LTE devices will be offered with voice carried out by 3G networks
• Once LTE coverage is sufficient the phone calls will become IP-based
• LTE will be first deployed in the 2.1GHz band, followed by spread into the 1.5GHz around 2012 and then adding 800MHz and 1.7GHz to the offering
• DoCoMo plans to install 20K LTE base stations by 2014 which should cover 50% of population
• First, LTE data cards will go on sale, with LTE mobile phones following in 2011 or later

Source: IT Media Pro Mobile