"The chief UK technology officer for Global telecommunications supplier Ericsson, John Cunliffe, has predicted that the next/fourth generation of Mobile Broadband technology (Long Term Evolution) will begin surfacing towards the end of 2009.

Speaking in a new interview with ZDNet, Cunliffe stated that trials of LTE would begin before the end of this year with commercial services, handsets and base stations becoming ready during late 2009. Naturally Ericsson is one of LTE's biggest backers and somewhat shuns rival mobile WiMax technology.

It's understood that Ericsson's drive testing of LTE in Sweden produced peak download speeds of 154Mbps, a mean of 78Mbps and a minimum of 16Mbps. In the real world such performance would need to be shared out between many users, resulting in initial speeds being only a few Megabits above that of existing services..."

[Via www.ispreview.co.uk]