4G mobile phone network comes to Scandinavia

coldfire1x

Swedish and Norwegian mobile users could be among the first to use a fourth-generation (4G) mobile network.

Mobile phone firm TeliaSonera has completed work on two 4G networks in Oslo and Stockholm.

The company said that the first customers will be able to start using the networks in early 2010.

Despite the launch of the network, no handsets can yet use 4G. Initially customers will connect via a dongle and a laptop.

Fourth-generation, 4G, networks are based around the Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology and downlink data speeds can hit 100 megabits per second - about ten times quicker than the fastest 3G networks.

The technology has been designed to overlay existing 3G networks and most operators have committed to upgrading to the faster system.

TeliaSonera said it was recruiting customers to pilot the network during the first quarter of 2010.

It has released no information about the cost of connecting to the high-speed network. The dongles for connecting to the LTE network are made by Samsung.

Phone equipment maker Ericsson has put together the network in Stockholm, Sweden and Chinese firm Huawei is behind the one in Oslo, Norway. Both networks cover the central regions of both cities.

TeliaSonera said it expected the boost in speed to drive many novel applications including gaming on the move and much greater viewing of video on laptops.

Handsets that can use LTE are expected in mid-late 2010.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8412035.stm

flodis79

Yeah, 50 to 80 mbps is great. At least the bandwidth is out there, might average out at 5mbps per user in peak times?

h57xiucj2z946q

O2 UK and Huawei


http://www.o2.com/media/press_releases/latest_pr_14526.asp

Rsaeire

At those speeds you can wish goodbye to your handset's battery. There's going to have to be a revolution in the battery market, otherwise all these new technological breakthroughs will mean nothing if the devices they're used on won't last a day without charging.

With that said, trust the Scandinavians to be first to launch the fastest mobile network in the western world; fair play to them, they always seem to be ahead of the game.

Blisterman

How does faster network mean less battery life?

Surely since you spend less time downloading, you'd get a longer battery life.

Rsaeire

Blisterman wrote: »

How does faster network mean less battery life?

Surely since you spend less time downloading, you'd get a longer battery life.

I agree that it should work like that, but experience with both 3G/HSDPA networks and capable handsets have shown otherwise.

With most new technology, the first consumer iteration isn't going to be the most power efficient. Using 3G as an example; when the first 3G handsets were launched, one of the biggest issues was battery life, due, in large part, to the network requiring more power for both voice and data transmissions. Over time, such power requirements have been reduced with technological advancements, however, 3G/HSDPA networks are still more power hungry than either GSM or EDGE networks.

I would certainly hope that, with LTE networks, the additional power requirements would be negated by the increased download speed, but that only accounts for one-off downloads. There's still RSS feeds, email client, push email, IM clients etc, that use either scheduled or real-time connections which would considerably decrease a handset's battery life, taking into the account what I've noted above.

This doesn't even factor in the use of mobile broadband with netbooks/laptops and their battery life expectations when simply browsing the Internet for any length of time.

drunkmonkey

Rsaeire wrote: »

There's going to have to be a revolution in the battery market

The revolution will be in the charger market;)
http://www.witricity.com/

elmer

A major part of the initial power hungry issues with 3g phones was also related to coverage. a 3g phone which has good coverage will actually use less power than one on 2g for that period of time. The issue is that when the coverage is bad you eat more power. Also when the 3g phones came out lots of other things were added at the same time such as cameras with flash and larger screens.

In the case of the nokias it was a joke as they were slow and the battery wasn't beefed up to cope with the extra need. It was just taken from older models. The default of having it attached to a data connection the whole time ate up plenty of juice too.

The difference now with the 3g phones is as always a learning experience.

I think though with LTE when you're a low to non user then your power requirements won't be vast. On laptops I put it similar to using the wifi. It shouldn't make a huge difference.

xanthor

..Meanwhile, proper 3G coverage is a myth in this country.

elmer wrote: »

In the case of the nokias it was a joke as they were slow and the battery wasn't beefed up to cope with the extra need. It was just taken from older models. The default of having it attached to a data connection the whole time ate up plenty of juice too.

Were it not for the RANCID V3 Razr that replaced it, the 6630 would be the worst phone i ever owned.

jimmycrackcorm

Battery life won't be a problem once Mobile phone design goes retro fashion...

Our man in Havana

The bricks were great phones.