TeliaSonera tests LTE network speeds

TeliaSonera has carried out drive testing on its new LTE network in Stockholm and demonstrated that downlink capacity and latency performance are about five times better than the performance typically achieved with 3G HSPA+ networks.

The operator, which launched 4G services to customers in Stockholm, Sweden and Oslo, Norway at the end of 2009, hired SwissQual, an independent Swiss network quality measurement company, to consuct the tests.

SwissQual made the measurements using the Samsung Kalmia LTE 4G modem mounted in the SwissQual Diversity Optimiser platform.  The Diversity Optimiser, in common with all of the probes in the SwissQual Evolution range, was designed to easily integrate new handsets and modems for emerging technologies such as LTE.

The results revealed that the LTE network had achieved downlink data throughputs up to 47 Mbps and TCP latency as low as 20ms, which is roughly five times better than the performance typically seen in 3G HSPA+ networks.

Magnus Hylen, SwissQual's product manager said:  "By using the Swedish Internet Infrastructure Foundation's server to test data download and upload, we can be sure that there were no bottlenecks in the IP connection.   This is crucial for accurate and reliable throughput assessment, especially at the speeds we now see with LTE.  

"Naturally LTE is in its infancy.  This meant that we saw regular disconnects and modem restarts.   However, this is something we have experienced with all new mobile technologies during the early phases of the rollout. Apart from these issues, the performance that we have recorded is really impressive and sets a new baseline for mobile high speed data services."