Dumb LTE network launched by TeliaSonera

The Swedish/Finnish operator and Sweden-based equipment vendor, Ericsson, say they've pushed the button on LTE (Long Term Evolution) services in the central city areas of both Stockholm and Oslo (the Swedish and Norwegian capital cities). TeliaSonera has licenses and network build under way in Sweden, Norway and Finland.

Not surprisingly - since there's a distinct lack of LTE handsets - the Nordic services are data-only and are to be aimed, at this stage anyway, at mobile laptop and netbook users who are being offered LTE dongles from Samsung.

Several operators around the world are planning to launch LTE services in 2010 which will offer speeds up to 10 times faster than those on offer from 3G (or rather, offer theoretically ten times the equally theoretical speed available under 3G). That greater throughput and simplified IP-based network architecture should enable operators to cope better with the increased data usage generated by the introduction of millions of smartphones over the next few years. Users of smartphones such as the iPhone and the various examples of Android now coming onto the market, are consuming data at a far higher rate than was envisaged. As a result some operators have revised forward their LTE plans (see Interview with Verizon CTO at the bottom of this story).

In that context the bragging rights for getting LTE off the ground early seem to be important (at least to the marketing and PR departments of the mobile operators concerned). So right on cue O2 and Huawei have stepped up to the plate to remind us of their LTE trial in the UK.