Thursday, May 20, 2010

TeliaSonera: Slow uptake of LTE blamed on no handsets - FierceWireless:Europe

TeliaSonera is thought to have only attracted around 1,000 customers to sign up for its new fourth-generation "Long Term Evolution" network, and the company says lack of handsets are a major reason adoption has been so slow.

The LTE network is said to provide coverage to almost 400,000 residents in Stockholm and Oslo. Ridiculously low adoption is based in part on the fact that, up to this point, TeliaSonera has chosen to launch service with no voice handsets. That has meant that the only thing a 4G network could be used for was PC connections.

As important as that application is for some users, it apparently provides no incentive for most users to switch from 3G to 4G. It remains to be seen whether 4G networks wind up being mostly about "faster downloads" or whether there really are distinctive applications that come to be seen as providing the value of 4G service.

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