Motorola has launched its first LTE (Long-Term Evolution, 4G) next generation Mobile Broadband trial network and testing lab in Swindon. The new lab began its life today with a live, standards compliant LTE call during which high-speed data services were streamed using Motorola's LTE infrastructure operating in the 2.6GHz spectrum and a prototype LTE device:


LTE is currently believed to be the most likely candidate to replace existing HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) based 3G Mobile Broadband services, which can only operate at up to a theoretical 14.4Mbps (HSPA+ can take this to 42Mbps) downstream.

By comparison LTE has the potential to reach 326Mbps downstream, though in reality end users would probably only ever experience a service in single figured Megabits per second (Mbps). Meanwhile a big question remains over how mobile operators will afford the extra capacity.