O2 trials LTE in UK

Next generation networking technology LTE is on a roll at the moment, doing a whistle stop tour of picturesque locations such as Stockholm, Oslo and Slough in just a few days.

Telefonica-owned mobile operator O2 said this week that it has carried out a successful trial of LTE in the UK, pumping out a cell peak downlink rate of 150Mbps, whilst showcasing high definition video streaming, mobile gaming, high speed file transfer and video conferencing.

Chinese vendor Huawei supplied the kit for the trial, which is part of Telefonica’s far reaching pilot project announced in October. The European carrier is to roll out LTE test projects in six countries, with a view to selecting technology providers for its 4G deployments.

The suppliers Telefónica has chosen so far are Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Huawei, NEC, Nokia Siemens Networks and ZTE, all of which will start rolling out the equipment necessary for testing the technology during the coming months.

The project will take place over six months and will consist of field tests and the installation of base stations at Telefonica’s branded operations in Spain (Telefonica), the UK, Germany and the Czech Republic in Europe as O2, and Brazil and Argentina in Latin America as Telefonica Moviles.

“We are defining our strategy and the rollout of LTE with the objective of driving mobile broadband and offering the best service from the moment that the equipment and terminals can support the new standards and are available for sale,” said Julio Linares, COO of Telefónica.

In related news, Swedish infrastructure firm Ericsson and its chip focused joint venture ST-Ericsson have announced successful tests of a multimode LTE/HSPA device capable of interoperating between LTE and HSPA networks.

The handover was demonstrated on live networks in Stockholm, Sweden, using a multimode device powered by ST-Ericsson’s platform, M710. The device and networks used were in compliance with the industry standard for commercial deployment, 3GPP Release 8 March baseline.