PARIS (Reuters) – France hopes to get at least 2.5 billion euros ($3.53 billion) for the fourth-generation (4G) wireless frequencies it plans to grant to telecom operators in an upcoming auction, Industry minister Eric Besson told Le Figaro.

France is in the final stages of setting terms for the auction of fourth-generation mobile spectrum, which will shape the competitive landscape of Europe’s third-largest telecom market for years to come.

The government had previously said it wanted to receive at least 2 billion euros from the auction but Besson said the new higher amount matched those of similar auctions the United States, Sweden and Germany.

“France must not sell its frequencies at cut-price levels,” Besson said in the interview published on Monday.

Besson added the auction would be split into several lots in order to prevent deep-pocketed bidders such as France Telecom from buying the majority of frequencies and gaining a major advantage over smaller players like Bouygues and new mobile entrant Iliad.

The 4G frequencies being sold are of two types. There are four lots up for grabs in the 800 megahertz band, which is more sought after for its ability to carry massive debits over long distances. Besson said the minimum price the government would accept for the lots in the 800 band will be 1.8 billion euros.

Then there is the 2.6 gigahertz band where there is more frequencies available, but given their lower quality will be sold for a lower price. Besson said the government had set a minimum price of 700 million euros for these frequencies.

Asked about the timeframe of the auction, Besson said the government would launch the official bidding process in June, then bids would be submitted in September.

The decisions on the bids would be made in October for the 2.6 gigahertz band, and November for the 800 megahertz band.

Ever since Sprint launched its Evo with WiMAX last year, calling it the nation’s first 4G phone, competing operators have scrambled to use the 4G moniker for their own devices and services. T-Mobile soon began touting that its HSPA+ network upgrades would bring “4G-like speeds” and now simply uses the 4G tag for phones that have 14 Mbps or better radios. AT&T is currently in the process of similar HSPA+ upgrade and has used 4G in the name of recent handsets, such as the Motorola Atrix 4G and HTC Inspire 4G. And in December, Verizon launched its own 4G network upgrade in the form of LTE, which is different from HSPA+ and WiMAX.

As this point, 4G is more of a marketing term than anything else for the carriers because technically, none of the current solutions meet the initial International Telecommunications Union definition of 4G. However, the ITU backtracked a bit because it realized all these mobile broadband networks offer speeds that are noticeably faster than 3G networks. That helps the marketers, but what does it mean to consumers? Would the 4G service from one carrier be comparable to that from another? The best way to answer that question is to test each carrier’s 4G service in one geographic area, and that’s exactly what RootMetrics did in Seattle, Wash.; the detailed results of which you can see here.

I first saw the company’s innovative mobile app last January. It crowdsources both the quality of service and mobile broadband bandwidth speeds, making it an excellent tool to test the 4G claims of each major carrier. Earlier this month, RootMetrics put the networks to the test and clearly, not all 4G networks are equal. Verizon’s LTE network in Seattle performed much as I found it in my local area: extremely fast and reliable. One could argue that few are on the network, which is a valid point, but regardless, the carrier is delivering as advertised, with an average download speed of more than 17 Mbps and 100 percent availability in Root’s testing.

Sprint’s WiMAX and T-Mobile’s HSPA+ were found to deliver fairly comparable downloads of 4.4 Mbps with the data availability ranging from 80 to 90 percent for both. T-Mobile’s service fared better on the upload side, however, providing more than double that of Sprint’s 605 Kbps on WiMAX. AT&T doesn’t yet show Seattle as a 4G city — the current coverage maps I found show about 10 cities with 4G — so it’s no surprise that a 4G handset in Root’s testing indicated the slowest speeds. Downloads on AT&T averaged 1.1 Mbps, which are indicative of 3G throughput; even with a 4G phone. Those are the high-level results, but this graph showing which carrier delivers what speeds at various intervals brings further detail to the picture.

It’s certainly true that mobile broadband performance is affected by many factors: location and cell tower proximity, the number of users in a given cell area, and the speed of the wired backhaul that provides connectivity from the tower to the web. But all carriers face those challenges and yet all deliver a widely different level of service even while marketing the mobile broadband as 4G. Maybe the ITU should have stuck to its guns?

Verizon’s first 4G handset, the HTC ThunderBolt, is available today and already the first real-world speed tests are coming in. Although there are relatively few LTE subscribers as compared to those on traditional 3G networks, the bandwidth numbers are impressive, both when using the phone for typical use and also as a connection for laptops. For the moment though, there are few smartphone uses for 12 Mbps outside of video, which suggests that speedy 4G phone customers are more likely to add the wireless hotspot service to their handset data plan. But over the long term, could the adoption of 4G eventually shift web developers away from lighter, mobile friendly sites?

Laptop Magazine offers some actual and early results of the ThunderBolt’s 4G performance. Standard speed tests on the phone yield download speeds between 4 and 13.8 Mbps. That helps the fairly heavy ESPN website to load in about four seconds; by comparison on a 3G connection, it took me about 22 seconds to open the same website this morning. Without a doubt, the extra wireless speeds will be welcome on a smartphone. But the mobile web has moved towards lighter sites that are more mobile friendly and load faster. In the case of ESPN, changing over to the mobile version of the site offers less data on the screen, but drops the load time to a bearable 6 seconds in my tests.

Why do we even have such mobile versions of sites? The obvious answer is two-fold: first, sites designed for smaller screens of handsets are easier to interact with, and second, traditional desktop versions of websites take too long to load on a 2G or 3G connection. Modern smartphone browsers have improved the web experience thanks to intuitive zooming controls, so there’s less usability need for a stripped down, mobile version of a site. And now that devices can download the desktop version of a website in just a few seconds on an advanced mobile broadband network, the second reason for mobile site versions diminishes as well. Sure, we’re just now getting started with LTE in the U.S. with our first phone to support it, so the mobile friendly web isn’t going away anytime soon. It will take years of additional smartphone adoption and network expansion before we see a decline in mobile sites.

It won’t take years to see consumers adopt wireless hotspot plans for the phones that have 4G capabilities, however. The real need for speed comes with a larger display where more content is created and a higher quality of content is consumed. For this reason, I’d be curious to see how many Verizon customers who purchase the ThunderBolt add the $20 wireless hotspot plan to their monthly contract. It’s rather clever of Verizon to offer the feature free through May 15 as well: almost like that first free hit to get you addicted as a paying customer later.

So how does the ThunderBolt work with a laptop? When used as a USB modem, Laptop Mag saw the ThunderBolt deliver download speeds near 20 Mbps on a laptop, while uploads peaked near 5 Mbps. Losing the cable and sharing the connection over Wi-Fi slowed things up, but bandwidth testing still peaked at 14 Mbps. Such speeds are ideally suited for streaming video or downloading large work attachments, for example. I’d argue that they’re actually better suited for the laptop today: do we really need 20 Mbps connections for Facebook status, Twitter use, email, connected smartphone apps or the other traditional smartphone uses? That last bit may be most telling: with more bandwidth available, the current “traditional” smartphone uses may look very different in the future.

Faster mobile broadband is welcome, no matter what the device or activity, but the launch of the first LTE handset could be the final snowflake that starts a slow and lengthy avalanche of change for what the mobile web looks like and how we access it.

The biggest technology news this week didn’t come from CES in Las Vegas. No, the biggest news story was that Qualcomm, a major mobile phone radio silicon player, is buying Atheros, one of the leading lights of Wi-Fi silicon. Put them together and what do you get? I’ll tell you what you get; you eventually get PCs, notebooks, tablets, smartphones, whatever, that can cheaply connect with both 4G and Wi-Fi networks.

Universal connectivity is one of the big CES themes. As NPR’s Laura Sydell said she’d seen “more Internet-connected devices than I’ve ever seen [before] at CES and some of them are talking to one another.” Of course, people at CES are also seeing how all this connectivity can fail, and I mean really fail as Nvidia’s CEO Jen-Hsun Huang will be “happy” to tell you all about that.

Besides there just not being enough bandwidth to go around at CES, one of the things they’re not telling you at CES is how hard it is to put all that 3G, 4G and wireless technology into a single device. That’s why I thought the news that Sierra Wireless bringing ready to go 4G for device OEMs was noteworthy news. This isn’t easy to do.

Now, Qualcomm will be able to add Atheros‘ Wi-Fi, Ethernet, Bluetooth, and powerline technologies to its 3G and 4G Long-Term Evolution (LTE) smartphone and tablet chipsets. Wouldn’t you like to have a smartphone, tablet, or PC that could connect to your office’s 802.11n network, your phone carrier’s 4G network, and your Bluetooth headset? If you were an OEM, wouldn’t you like to be able to easily and cheaply buy a chipset that would let you do it all in one package?

Looking ahead, wouldn’t you like to be able to do this with the new Gigabit Wi-Fi standards coming down the road like 802.11ac, 802.11ad, and Wireless Gigabit aka WiGig? Sounds great doesn’t it?

If Qualcomm and Atheros can successfully harness their technological forces together, a future where all our devices can talk to each on whatever network works best for a given situation will be a lot closer than you might believe.

While I’m excited about the network connectivity promises of this deal, Qualcomm may be hoping for even more. While other ARM-processor based businesses, such as Nvidia with its Tegra 2 is making headlines, don’t forget that Qualcomm has a noteworthy ARM-based CPU family of its own, the Snapdragon. Now, think about the possibilities of universal wireless connectivity with a high-powered, dual-core processor. Interesting isn’t it? I’m sure that exactly what Qualcomm’s executives were thinking too when they made this deal.

BRUSSELS—The European Commission wants radio spectrum for wireless broadband—also known as the fourth-generation mobile network—available by 2013, it said Thursday in a Memo ahead of the European Union Telecom Ministers’ meeting.

“The commission is convinced that its proposal to fix 2013 as the target date is necessary and realistic,” Neelie Kroes, EU Commissioner for the digital agenda said. “[We] will encourage those member states that have had difficulties in making progress so far and are working hard to overcome those difficulties to meet this deadline.”

Ms. Kroes said individual extensions until 2015 could be made possible if absolutely necessary. Telecoms Ministers are due to meet tomorrow in Brussels.

At the meeting, she will tell ministers about plans to launch a public consultation on roaming ahead of the review of current EU rules on international roaming, which is due in June 2011. Ms. Kroes’s predecessor, Viviane Reding, imposed a cap on intra-EU mobile roaming charges.

“In particular, she will underline that price regulation should always be a last resort and that it is essential to consider other options which could be used to create a competitive internal market for roaming,” the memo said. The commission wants the difference between national and roaming charges to approach zero by 2015.

SEOUL: Telecom gear maker Alcatel-Lucent said on Wednesday that it is expecting India to deploy 4G networks as early as the second quarter of next year, and it is aggressively pursuing deals with Indian operators.

“What’s coming next is 4G. A number of operators are actively planning deployment of 4G LTE networks in the beginning of next year in India. We are very aggressively pursuing those conversations,” Rajeev Singh-Molares, president of Asia Pacific and executive vice president of Alcatel-Lucent, told Reuters.

The company also expects its revenue to grow further in the fourth quarter from the third quarter, when it posted its first sales rise in 10 quarters as demand started to recover outside North America on strong data traffic growth.

He also said the US market has a lot of growth potential because of data explosion coming from smartphones and tablet PCs.

Two of the most popular next generation wireless technologies are close to getting their official 4G moniker from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

The ITU, which is an agency within the United Nations, is the International standards body that officially designates wireless technologies as 1G, 2G, 3G and now 4G. This week at a meeting in China the group took a step closer to making the technologies LTE or Long Term Evolution and WiMax official 4G standards.

Specifically, the ITU voted that LTE-Advanced technology, meets the criteria it uses to classify the technology as 4G. The ITU also voted that the WirelessMAN-Advanced portion of WiMAX IEEE 802.16m also meets requirements to be considered 4G. The organization will likely ratify the LTE technology as a 4G standard at its next meeting in November. The WiMax version will likely be voted on later in 2011.

The last 18 months has been very confusing for consumers when it comes to understanding what 4G really means. The term has been used by marketers to describe next generation wireless networks that offer faster speeds. But so far the ITU has not officially designated any technology as being 4G.

This means that the LTE network that Verizon Wireless is building and will soon launch as well as the WiMax network Clearwire and Sprint Nextel have been building are not technically “4G.”

In fact, even after the ITU officially designates LTE and WiMax as 4G technologies, the flavors that are currently being deployed still won’t be officially”4G.”

The ITU requires 4G technologies to be IP-based and use orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM). The other main requirement is that the technology needs to support peak download speeds of 100Mbps. The current flavors of LTE and WiMax are not that fast.

That said, they are still a big improvement over older-generation 3G technologies and data speeds. Average 3G services offer between 700Kbps and 1.5Mbps. Sprint’s WiMax service, built by Clearwire, offers average download speeds around 6Mbps, the company has said. And Verizon claims that tests indicate it is getting download speeds between 6Mbps and 12Mbps on its pre-commercial LTE network.

Clearwire, which uses WiMax today, is already testing new generations of LTE technology. At the 4G World conference here this week, the carrier said it has been testing an advanced verstion of LTE that offering peak download speeds between 50Mbps and 90Mbps.

Since the wireless industry can’t yet agree on a single definition for the term “4G,” it should be no surprise that the 4G World show in Chicago this week saw top service providers deliver mixed messages about what consumers might be able to expect from the “fourth generation” of cellular services over the next year. But one thing is clear: We’re a lot closer to enjoying the faster speeds of the new networks than we were a year ago, and the advance of the technology is picking up speed.

While base-technology choices and network-deployment time frames differ greatly among the country’s top providers, the cellular carriers agree to some extent about what consumers will see throughout 2011: more connected devices, faster network speeds to support better video and data-download connections, and a wide range of new pricing plans aimed at all segments of the rapidly expanding mobile-data market.

Even if the carriers can’t agree on what 4G really is, they all know that potential customers are already clamoring for more ways to connect, at faster speeds–and to stay competitive, the carriers must respond. “There’s a new normal being created,” said Matt Carter, president of Sprint’s 4G operations, who noted in an interview that Sprint has seen data use “explode” on the company’s 4G network. “Today we call that person a ‘heavy user,’” Carter said. “But that amount of network use is becoming the new normal.”

The WiMax-based network built by Clearwire (and used by partner and majority owner Sprint) will continue to offer 4G services to the largest number of U.S. markets, with 56 cities already live and three major markets–Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco–slated to come online before the end of the year. At the show, Sprint announced a Dell netbook and laptop with embedded 3G and 4G service options, adding to its list of 4G-enabled devices.

Verizon’s map of 4G LTE service availability by the end of 2010.Before the end of 2010, however, the Sprint/Clearwire combo is scheduled to get its first real competition in the 4G arena when Verizon launches its Long Term Evolution network. Although Verizon wasn’t at the 4G World show, its announcement earlier this month of the 39 cities and 60-plus airports included in its planned 2010 LTE rollout was a competitive presence in all 4G discussions at the McCormick Center this week.

While AT&T didn’t elaborate on its 4G plans at the show (other than to confirm its already announced schedule of limited LTE launches by mid-2011), the company did talk about implementing a new range of pricing models for both its 3G and 4G networks similar to the pay-as-you-go plan that accompanied AT&T’s successful launch of the 3G-enabled Apple iPad.

T-Mobile, meanwhile, used the show to continue touting its HSPA+ network as a “4G” service, even though the technology is widely regarded as a souped-up version of a 3G service. And even prepaid-market provider MetroPCS continued to make noise in the 4G space, announcing during the show the addition of Detroit to the list of cities where the company offers its LTE phone.

The following is a quick roundup from the show, a look at what each of the top wireless providers had to say about 4G plans for 2011 and beyond.

Clearwire is launching its 4G WiMax network in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles before the end of the year, it said Monday.

The service offers speeds similar to Wi-Fi but without the short-range limitations and is already available in 56 markets across the U.S. The upcoming launch will strengthen the network’s reach into America’s largest cities and will likely make the service more attractive to business users who are often on the road.

New York will be get service from Nov. 1, Los Angeles on Dec. 1, and San Francisco in late December, the company said.

Services will be launched by Clearwire under its “Clear” brand and by Sprint, which owns a majority stake in Clearwire. In New York service will also be offered by Time Warner Cable and in San Francisco by Comcast.

Networks in the three cities have been under test for several weeks and last month PC World reported on initial service in San Francisco. The magazine found download speeds of almost 3Mbps and upload speeds of 1Mbps on the test network.

When full service begins users should see download speeds of between 3Mbps and 6Mbps, PC World said.

Clearwire also said it plans to launch 4G service in Denver, Miami, Cincinnati and Cleveland before the end of 2010.

The additional launches means Phoenix will become the largest U.S. city without 4G service from Clearwire/Sprint.

TAIPEI, Sept 27 (Reuters) – China Mobile (0941.HK), the world’s largest carrier by subscribers, said on Monday it would extend its cooperation with Taiwan smartphone maker HTC Corp (2498.TW) to new-generation 4G mobile technology.

China Mobile vice president Huang Wenlin made the comment at a business conference in Taiwan, but did not give other details. The two companies cooperate in 3G technology now.

HTC is set to launch its first 4G models next year, with shipment expected to be to Verizon Communications (VZ.N), Taiwan’s Economic Daily News said on Monday.

Around noon, China Mobile shares rose 0.5 percent in Hong Kong, lagging the Hang Seng Index’s .HSI 1.3 percent gain. In Taiwan, HTC shares gained 0.4 percent, versus the main TAIEX’s .TWII 0.5 percent jump.

Earlier this month, telecoms equipment maker Alcatel Lucent (ALUA.PA) said some telecoms carriers in China and India could put out bids for the building of 4G trial networks as early as year-end, as they rush to upgrade existing networks or get into the wireless business. [ID:nSGE68C09M]

China Mobile has been letting some of the world’s top equipment sellers, including the French-U.S. firm, show off their 4G capabilities at the Shanghai Expo that began in May and runs through the end of October.

A number of carriers looking at 4G are seriously considering TD-LTE, one of several variants of 4G being developed and promoted by China Mobile.