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By Natasha Lomas, 12 June 2009 11:49

...that will work better over LTE?
Faster speed tends to improve the experience of most online activity but LTE should also help two-way comms that are big on bandwidth (videoconferencing or online multiplayer gaming, say), while improved latency would be a boon to voice over IP - a tech that's very sensitive to time delays.

But while we're on the topic of voice - albeit 'voice carried as data' voice - it's worth stressing LTE networks don't have a separate circuit-switched network for voice, as is the case on existing mobile networks. As a result, there are currently a plethora of opinions as to how LTE networks will or should carry voice - with VoIP only being one possible solution.

It's not, however, the only one being discussed: consensus among the mobile operators is not there meaning the potential for fragmentation is. And fragmentation over different technical approaches to voice starts to sound like a lot of unnecessary complication, fuss and bother - just as LTE was supposed to be simplifying mobile network tech.

Oh dear…
Oh dear indeed. Still, it's not massively surprising being as it's early days for Long Term Evolution: while 26 operators globally have committed to LTE, the world's first radio base station in a commercial LTE network was only deployed last month. The actual network, in Stockholm, won't be up and running until next year.

So when can we expect an LTE network in the UK?
Good question, to which no one knows the answer for sure. Last year Ericsson's UK CTO John Cunliffe predicted no rollout before 2011 at the earliest.

While various operators have trialled or tested LTE kit, the current economic climate is hardly conducive to making big infrastructure investments, so UK operators at least are not rushing to announce deployments.

As well as the economic turbulence having a delaying effect on potential LTE rollouts, operators are aware that additional speed can be milked from existing 3G technologies such as HSPA+ - another factor which could put off a move to LTE.

What about LTE hardware? Don't we need to wait for LTE-enabled phones anyway?
Yes, there's a definite chicken and egg situation with both next-gen hardware and next-gen networks needed to deliver LTE. But Paul Steinberg, Motorola's chief architect of wireless networks, believes LTE dongle hardware could be key to expediting next-generation networks, as he reckons it would be comparatively quicker and easier to produce LTE dongles, rather than waiting for an LTE iPhone.