The UK Mobile Phone Blog

O2’s 4G LTE Network

December 15, 2009 at 11:10 am by Mark | In Mobile Content/Services, Mobile News, Wireless Products And Services

Now the title of this post may seem like a string of pretty irrelevant letters and numbers, until you find out what the LTE stands for, or more importantly what it actually is. LTE stands for Long Term Evolution, which all sounds well and good, but still doesn’t really hint at what it actually is.

Well, LTE is considered by many to be the obvious successor to the current generation of UMTS 3G technology, which is based upon WCDMA, HSDPA, HSUPA, and HSPA. LTE is not a replacement for UMTS in the way that UMTS was a replacement for GSM, but rather an update to the UMTS technology that will enable it to provide significantly faster data rates for both uploading and downloading.

In lamens terms, ultra fast mobile broadband. O2 (in conjunction with Chinese firm Huawei) has just begun testing it’s 4G network in the Slough area and has reported actual download speeds of 150mbps, which, when compared to even the fastest broadband toting handsets out there, makes HSDPA seem as crude and slow as using a carrier pigeon in favour of an e-mail.

So, what will it actually allow you to do? well, we would assume that somewhere high on the network’s wishlist is the ability to stream HD video directly to your phone. HD movies whilst on the bus/train anyone?

Now, don’t go getting too excited about this just yet, the technology is still in early testing and isn’t likely to be seen on public display until late into 2010. We don’t know about you, but Christmas presents this year might seem a little under-whelming knowing what will most certainly be on our letters to Santa next year. Okay, so maybe a slight exaggeration but still, 150mbps download speeds? Yes please!

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