Well, sort of. Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU), with the help of partners, has rigged a Toyota Prius with an LTE connection to show all the different things drivers, passengers, and even the car can do when hooked up to a high-speed mobile broadband network. (See AlcaLu Demos LTE Concept Car.)
Alcatel-Lucent outfitted the car with an LTE/WiFi "bridge" that connects to a wide area LTE test network and creates a WiFi hotspot in the car. The equipment supplier worked with QNX Software Systems -- an in-car operating system supplier -- to provide the services platform in the car. Atlantic Records, chumby, and Kabillion chipped in with content for the showcase.
Some of the services in the showcase include multi-player games, video on demand, navigation, vehicle maintenance checks and notifications, and sharing construction and road safety information with other cars.
From the point of view of QNX, which has shipped 12 million software systems for cars, the difference LTE can make to services like personalized navigation is that data can be stored on the network rather than in the system on board the car, which is the case now, explains Linda Campbell, director of strategic alliances.
While the LTE-connected car sounds interesting, it is not clear how operators might make money from such services. For example, would Toyota offer these networked services and features in the car, perhaps hosted by Alcatel-Lucent, and then pay the mobile operator for capacity used on the LTE network? Or could Verizon, for example, offer these services for a monthly fee on top of a mobile broadband subscription? Would Verizon wholesale the service to auto makers?
"Those discussions are happening now among operators and auto makers... on where this gets monetized," says Derek Kuhn, VP of emerging technology and media at AlcaLu.
For Alcatel-Lucent, the LTE-connected car is one of the first fruits of its ng Connect Program , which aims to bring together application developers, content providers, network suppliers, and device makers so that they can come up with applications and services that can run on future mobile broadband networks and, ultimately, that operators can actually make money from. (See AlcaLu Forms an Ecosystem, AlcaLu Adds ng Members, and MWC 2009: Alcatel-Lucent Booth Tour.)
That would be cool. You sort of can get that today on 3G...
I have Internet radio and Last.fm on my phone, which connects to the car sound-system. Works OK. Well enough to see how good it would be, if done properly.
I just think it would be cool to have an LTE radio in the car, which could connect to Internet radio stations all over the world. While stuck in traffic I could listen to a Norwegian classical station or a BBC science station.
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