TeliaSonera first to launch 4G

TeliaSonera beats American Verizon and Docomo in Japan with the launch of LTE, also called 4g. Mobile devise developer Ericsson confirms that TeliaSonera are the first to commercialize 4g services.

This morning TeliaSonera's customers in Stockholm and Oslo are able to subscribe to the first 4g plans in the world.

- We do not have access to that many modems yet, so we are keeping it low scale in the beginning, says Kenneth Karlberg, Mobile director at TeliaSonera to Computer Sweden.

During 2009 three various operators started competing about the launch of the 4g network; American Verizon, Japanese Docomo, and TeliaSonera. According to Ericsson who is network provider to all three operators, not Verizon neither Docomo have accomplished commercial launches of 4g services. This means that TeliaSonera wins the race when launching the network on December 15, 2009.

- It is the world's first LTE network going live. Things like that do not happen too often. I happens about every ten years that we launch a new standard, so it is indeed a unique situation, says Johan Wibergh, Business Manager at Ericsson's network company to IDG News.

According to Johan Wibergh, broad band in the new Nordic net should be enough to stream i.e. HD TV.

Source: Computer Sweden