Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) reports that it has seen an explosion in demand for Long Term Evolution (LTE) based Mobile Broadband services, which is expected to be adopted by most mobile operators in the UK, Europe and instead of mobile WiMAX.

LTE can theoretically deliver download speeds of up to 1Gbps (the 4G - 4th Generation - standard), though most UK deployments are expected to start with something closer to 150Mbps. However real-world performance will still be crippled by the limits of current capacity, which is already finding it hard to keep pace with demand due to meagre data revenues.

Existing HSPA (3.5G / Super 3G) based UK Mobile Broadband services often claim speeds of up to 7.2Mbps, while the initial HSPA standard they use can deliver up to 14.4Mbps. However the real-world speeds are often closer to 1-2Mbps, they also suffer from latency spikes and connection problems. LTE can improve all of these things but it is not a miracle cure.

Nokie Siemens currently claims to be conducting no less than 30 commercial next generation LTE network trials and is in talks with 15 top tier operators about the rollout of consumer services. Some 12 commercial LTE networks have already signed up. "It's unbelievable how the momentum is growing", said Thorsten Robrecht, NSN's Head of LTE Product Management.

Presently O2 (Telefonica) is home to the UK's most prominent LTE trials (here) and they have plans to begin rolling the technology out towards the end of this year. However the recent political induced uncertainty over Ofcom's related spectrum auctions could cause delays into 2011 or later.