European Commission pumps €18 million into LTE research

Today, the European Commission announced it will invest a total of €18 million into researching the deployment of LTE and LTE Advanced.

The EC says it will begin laying down the details of its LTE projects next month, and intends to begin in January 2010. The projects are expected to cost more than €700 million by the time they're completed in 2012.

"With LTE technologies, Europe's research 'know-how' will continue to set the tone for the development of mobile services and devices around the globe, just as we did in the past decades with the GSM standard," said EU Commissioner for Telecoms and Media, Viviane Reding. "LTE technologies will turn mobile phones into powerful mobile computers. Millions of new users will get ultra high-speed internet access on their portable devices, wherever they are. This will create tremendous opportunities and plenty of space for growing the digital economy."

Last month, EU member states and the European Parliament approved the Commission's proposal to use the 900 MHz band available for the use in LTE and other technologies.

Sweden's TeliaSonera and Ericsson unveiled its first LTE site in the 900 MHz band last May, and Verizon Wireless announced it had completed tests on two 900 MHz LTE networks less than a week ago.