From this year the LTE standard should be available in Germany. The technology is getting better, also in the mobile sector. The ultimate connectivity, was to “yesterday” UMTS it is now 3 GPP LTE (Long Tem evolution). At least, if you can believe the large-scale field trials, LTE seems to close, to become in the future, the market leader in mobile communications. LTE uses the techniques of “OFDM” (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) and “MIMO” (Multiplie-input-multiple-output antenna technology). From a wide LTE coverage, it is still far away, but from 2010 to accelerate expansion.
Just by the low load times, also offering voice services (VoIP) and video telephony is no more obstacle. The now given opportunity of online gaming is also very interesting. This is very happy especially young customers. Online games with the “UMTS” previously on technology surely still no pleasure, especially depending on the customer tariff and traffic usage, data transfer, downgraded EDGE base was. LTE offers customers low load times, but the probably more important aspect, the reasonable prices. To the speeds both the up – and download you would like to but still not generally commit himself, but in field trials, up to 60 Mbits/second data transfer speeds were reached.
If this speed even with mass can be achieved, this remains to be seen. At least, the LTE technology promises significant improvement already customers. Only remains to be seen how the pricing ultimately really affects the customer. One thing is certain however already. The LTE coverage is established, a new price and customer competition is already pre-programmed by the mobile operator. Customers can now look forward, especially if the provider also LTE prepaid tariffs in the range. These tariffs require normally no contract.