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First LTE Network Goes Live ...
(14 Dec 2009, BWCS Staff)Nordic telecoms powerhouse TeliaSonera has announced the commercial launch of what it is claiming to be the World's first LTE (Long Term Evolution) mobile networks in Stockholm and Oslo. The kit for the new 4G systems has been supplied by Ericsson in Sweden and Huawei in the Danish capital.
Sweden is set to be one of the leading lights in the emerging LTE industry, in April of this year two rival mobile operators, Telenor Sweden and Tele2 Sweden, announced plans to jointly build and operate a 4G network to cover the country with advanced mobile broadband services. According to the partners, the system, based on LTE technology will offer download speeds of up to 150Mbps in urban areas and 80Mbps in the countryside. The two companies say they have formed a joint venture to oversee and fund the roll out - the first city-wide services should go into operation by the end of 2010.
Across the world, telecom operators are expected to spend billions of euros on the next generation LTE-based networks as demand for data traffic using their current networks continues to grow exponentially thanks to the surge in take-up of mobile data cards. The first major roll-outs are expected only late next year, with wider deployments in around 2012.
According to Ericsson, LTE, is designed for transferring huge amounts of data in a most cost and energy efficient way, optimizing use of frequency band and realizing fiber-like access speed over the air. With decreased latency, consumers can now enjoy whatever service is available online: HD video, network games whilst on the move.
An excited Kenneth Karlberg, President and Head of Mobility Services at TeliaSonera said in a statement "We are very proud to be the first operator in the world to offer our customers 4G services. Thanks to the successful cooperation with Ericsson we can offer 4G to our customers in Stockholm earlier than originally planned."
Downtown Stockholm is covered with the LTE network, making it the largest LTE deployment to date. TeliaSonera's customers are the first to have access to the LTE service by commercially available Samsung LTE dongles.
Evaluation of suppliers for TeliaSonera's common 4G core network and radio networks in the Nordic and Baltic countries is in progress and vendors will be selected in the beginning of next year.
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