World's first 4G network launched in Sweden and Norway

TeliaSonera revealed its 4G network at its head office in Stockholm yesterday

The launch of the world's first commercially accessible 4G network was announced yesterday. The launch occurred at a press conference held at TeliaSonera's head office in Stockholm, where the company demonstrated its new service to attendees and to an internet audience watching via a webcast. The 4G network is currently available in Stockholm and Oslo, and TeliaSonera is offering the world's first 4G modems for use with the network.

At the press conference in Stockholm, Kenneth Karlberg (President of Business Area Mobility Services at TeliaSonera), said that the company's target speed for the 4G network is 100Mbit/s and that the normal speed for a customer should be between 20 and 80 Mbit/s. This exceptionally high data transfer rate will enable mobile broadband users to undertake video conferencing, watch streaming video, transfer large files and a host of other activities on their mobile devices. These are activities which are thwarted by the limited speeds offered by current 3G networks.

The growth of mobile broadband in the Nordic and Baltic region opened up opportunities for telecommunications companies to develop mobile broadband for general and business consumers in these areas. Developing 4G was therefore an inevitable, yet important step in improving mobile communication and being the pioneer of this venture, TeliaSonera now has a great deal of pressure to get it right. TeliaSonera plans to expand the provision of this service to Sweden's 25 largest cities, Norway's 4 largest cities and Finland early next year. Kenneth Karlberg also mentioned the likelihood of expanding the network to cover regions in Denmark during the first quarter of 2010.

Swedish residential customers interested in the service can now sign up to a 12 month contract at an introductory rate of 4 SEK per month including VAT (until the 1^st of July 2010), which includes a 4G modem and a data allowance of 30GB per month. Norwegian residential customers can sign up to contracts starting at 1 NOK per month. The Swedish network will be supplied by Ericsson, and the Norwegian network will be supplied by Huawei.

To find out more about TeliaSonara's 4G network, you can see a webcast of the press conference here, or visit the company's 4G page here.