NTT DoCoMo has been pushing ahead with boosting network speeds: the Japanese operator says it has notched up a downlink transmission rate of 250Mbps over an outdoor LTE test network.
DoCoMo is now working on testing handover from one base station to another, and how LTE performs in both indoor and outdoor environments, carrying out the trials near its R&D labs in Yokosuka.
It’s great to see companies making bigger and bigger leaps in bandwidth – good news for efficiency as much as anything. The only downside? DoCoMo expects it won’t finish testing the technology til 2009, so we’re still years away from actually getting our hands on devices and networks that can deliver this speed. Why do operators keep teasing us like this?!
As usual, the future is here – it’s just going to take 5 years to become mainstream.
LTE will cost ‘a bit’ (read: billions) to roll out, hence the seemingly glacial timeframe. No-one invests that much without being really sure of what they are doing.
er…..(irony detection on) yes, 3G licences. Billions. It’s taken 5 years to become mainstream. But look at the love you get now. Hmmmmm. There’s no turning back the mobile data clock, so the justification for spending on LTE is easier than the apparent 3G debacle-turned-good. And don’t mention WiMax, m’kay? Non-starter.
/m