O2 in UK LTE trial

Mobile operator saw 150-Mbps peak downlink speeds using Huawei-supplied equipment.
O2 UK on Tuesday announced it has successfully carried out a live 3G Long Term Evolution (LTE) trial, using equipment supplied by China's Huawei.

During the trial at its U.K. headquarters in Slough, the mobile operator recorded a peak downlink speed of 150 Mbps.

"We are pleased to collaborate with Huawei on this LTE trial, which will allow us to better understand this emerging technology and prepare us in offering our customers next-generation mobile broadband services in future," said Derek McManus, CTO of O2 UK, in a statement.

The Chinese equipment vendor became the first of O2 parent company Telefonica's suppliers to implement a live LTE trial.

"[We] are very keen to be involved with the Telefonica O2 UK trials for LTE/SAE (System Architecture Evolution) technology," said Pablo Chen, head of Huawei's Telefonica O2 account.

"These trials will give an excellent reference to Telefonica O2 for the evaluation of LTE technology," he commented.

O2 UK said it recently showcased a number of services that it expects will make use of LTE networks in future, including high definition video streaming, mobile gaming, high-speed file transfer and video conferencing.

However, the industry will now be able to observe real-life usage after Sweden's TeliaSonera on Monday launched commercial LTE services in Stockholm and the Norwegian capital Oslo.

The operator is offering a mobile broadband subscription via a Samsung-made LTE dongle for SEK599 (£52) per month.

However, U.S.-based device testing company Fanfare on Tuesday warned against rushing towards LTE.

"These [TeliaSonera and O2] announcements indicate that the next generation of devices and services really are just around the corner," said David Gehringer, vice president of marketing at Fanfare, in a statement.

But he noted that the speeds offered by next-generation networks will put pressure on service providers and handset manufacturers to deliver increasingly capable and complex devices, which risks impeding quality.

"With the various challenges of developing working products on time, they can either release inferior products to market or delay them entirely – which will result in additional costs and negative PR," said Gehringer.

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