Looks like Scandinavian countries such as Sweden, Norway and Finland will be the very first to roll out a commercial 4th Generation Network or 4G based on LTE.
TeliaSonera, a Swedish mobile phone company claim they have now completed their initial work on the 4G networks in Stockholm and Oslo.
They got mobile phone manufacturer Ericsson to create the Network for Stockholm and chose Chinese company Huawei to create the one in Oslo.
TeliaSonera will launch the next generation of mobile broadband in these cities early in the New Year with Finland next in line for the service and another 25 cities across Sweden and Norway before 2010 is out.
For those who don’t know, 4G is an acronym for the next generation of wireless communication that will eventually replace 3G.
I bet some of you are already thinking, wait a minute, 4G is already out there, didn’t Sprint deploy the first 4G network? Well yes, but that was based on mobile WiMax technology, which isn’t the same thing.
Unfortunately, definitions of 4G tend to be vague, here what we’re talking about is mobile communication technology based on LTE technology or Long Term Evolution technology.
LTE will allow users a secure on the move mobile connection with speeds that are about ten times faster than those currently available on 3G Networks.
4G is sometimes referred to as “beyond 3G” for obvious reasons as well as “MAGIC” because it offers Mobile multimedia Anytime anywhere, Global mobility support, Integrated wireless solution and Customised personal services.
For users it means better quality video streaming, “anytime, anywhere” voice and data, basically a seamless service across many different wireless networks and systems.
The 4G Long Term Evolution network will enable the use of services “requiring high transmission speed and capacity, such as advanced web TV broadcasting, extensive online gaming and web conferences,” said Kenneth Karlberg, TeliaSonera’s president and head of mobile services at a press conference.
You know, it’s just a pity there aren’t any 4G mobile handsets to go along with it yet as these aren’t on the cards until later on next year or even 2011 but that’s a small detail, users will still be able to make use of the super fast mobile broadband speeds via a Samsung made dongle for accessing the LTE Network and a laptop.
Not too long to wait now folks, LTE is on its way.
