New 4G LTE networks are being built on so many frequency bands that it will be very difficult to build true world phones, and LTE phones' battery life and signal quality will suffer, Informa Telecoms and Media research analyst Malik Saadi said after releasing a report this week. The Informa report reiterates what many in the wireless industry already know: LTE is being launched on too many frequency bands for phone builders to cover all of them. Here in the U.S., launches so far have focused on the 700Mhz and 1700Mhz bands. That's not too bad. But to roam to Europe, the Informa report says, your phone will need to support 800, 2600, and maybe 1800. To travel in Asia, you're looking at 700, 800, 1800, 2100, 2300, or 2600, depending on where you go. Japan has a 1500 band just for that country. The Informa press release also doesn't mention LightSquared's particular 1500Mhz band, or the possibility that Clearwire may implement LTE in 2500Mhz. "There is no way you can support all of the 22 [LTE] bands in a single device," Saadi said. Remember phone makers need to add all of the 3G bands too, as well as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS antennas. The best bet for U.S. phones will be quad-band LTE devices that support 700, AWS, 2100, and 2600, giving them some coverage in countries worldwide. But those roaming phones won't have anywhere near the coverage or signal quality of local phones which support all the local bands.
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