Ahead of LTE (Long Term Evolution) rollout plans set by other telecom operators such as Verizon Wireless and Japan's NTT DoCoMo, Swedish Teliasonera announced on December 14 that it has commercially LTE services in the cities of Stockholm and Oslo, Norway, using networks supplied by Ericsson and Huawei, respectively, according to a press release by TeliaSonera on December 14. Being the first of its kind, TeliaSonera's LTE network is expected to offer the transmission speed up to ten times faster than the existing 3G network, according again to the same source.

 

However, there are currently no LTE mobile phones available and users can only access data services via Samsung's LTE modem, which is not 3G compatible though, the Wall Street Journal reported on December 14. The LTE-enabled mobile phone is projected to launch in early 2010, while the modem supporting 3G and LTE technologies will be available in the second quarter of 2010. Furthermore, TeliaSonera is set to expand the LTE service to 25 cities in Sweden and three more cities in Norway by year-end 2010, with a total investment of around 500 million Krona (US$68.87 million; US$ = 7.26 Krona) according again to the Wall Street Journal.

 

Meanwhile, UK-based telecom operator O2, a subsidiary of Telefonica, recently announced that it has completed the LTE trial in Slough - its headquarters in the United Kingdom -with LTE network supplied by Huawei, the Sohu IT News reported on December 15. O2 stated that the LTE trial network is capable of offering a maximum downlink speed of 150Mbps in Slough area, according to the same source. O2, however, did not specify its LTE launch date.