The recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona was dominated by talk of the 3G Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology that will bring ultra-fast downloads to the mobile market within two years.
Ericsson demonstrated the first end-to-end LTE phone call using a mobile device; Nortel Networks and Motorola both had live radio access networks; and NXP Semiconductors showed off a multimode LTE modem capable of 150 Mbps downstream and 50 Mbps upstream, ideal for streaming live TV and music to handsets, laptops and the new generation of ultra-mobile PCs. Nokia Siemens even announced the commercial availability of pre-standardised network equipment. The LTE standard is part of 3GPP Release which is not expected to be finalised until 2009.
Analysts are expecting a quick deployment, with the first commercial services in 2010, and 24 million LTE subscribers worldwide by 2012, according to Jupiter Research.
Improved bandwidth is just one of the advantages LTE has over the current version of mobile broadband, HSPA. LTE can also accommodate large cell sizes and so offer better coverage in rural locations, and has less latency so will interconnect more efficiently with other IP networks.