You know the drill – if you do not do plenty of data access from online sources on your smartphone, then turning off its 3G or LTE radio would go a long way in preserving battery life. Needless to say, those running on 3G will use up less juice than on a LTE network, and if you drop the connection to just EDGE, it will offer even more mileage. AT&T has stepped forward to the plate, claiming that their LTE handsets will be easy on the battery when their LTE service rolls out.
Just how much more power efficient? Well, AT&T was comparing itself to Verizon Wireless, according to AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vega. The secret behind this ability? Circuit-switched fallback (CSFB) which allows a 4G handset to theoretically rely on LTE for data and legacy 3G networks for voice. While this kind of backwards compatibility will see each LTE handset come with two radios, AT&T boldly claims that such an implementation will not bulk up the handset or drain the battery unnecessarily.
What do you think of this setup? Will you be rocking to Ma Bell by then?