ST-Ericsson demos first LTE-HSPA compliant terminal

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 16 December 2009 04:00

Business IT - Technology

Wireless chipset vendor, ST-Ericsson claims to have achieved the first handover between LTE and HSPA networks, using its multimode LTE/HSPA device.

Interoperability was demonstrated on Ericsson-supplied LTE and HSPA networks in Stockholm using a multimode device powered by ST-Ericsson's M710 chipset. The company says the M710 is compliant with the industry standard for commercial LTE deployment, 3GPP Release 8, issued in March 2009, and that it is commercially available.

According to ST-Ericsson it can deliver downstream throughput of 100Mbps, upstream of 50Mbps, supports all allocated frequencies for LTE and can operate in bandwidths from 1.4Mbps to 20Mbps.

TeliaSonera earlier this week launched the world's first commercial LTE networks in Stockholm (supplied by Ericsson) and in Oslo (Huawei). The initial user devices are LTE USB dongles supplied by Samsung, but these operate only on the LTE network. TeliaSonera says it expects to have a multi-mode 2G/3G/LTE modem available in the second quarter of 2010 and will offer these to its first LTE customers as a free exchange for their Samsung devices.

Jörgen Lantto, executive vice president and chief technology officer of ST-Ericsson, said: "Seamless roaming between LTE and today's networks is a key device capability to enable faster introduction of LTE."