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Early commercial LTE operators are facing a double challenge - pushing the performance of a technology that is not yet tried and tested in the real world, and communicating the real world results effectively to users. TeliaSonera has sparked some controversy in the latter area, with initially disappointing data rates on its world-first LTE network in Sweden. Now, three months into the life of that system, it is already planning an upgrade to achieve peak download rates of 100Mbps.

The Nordic operator has networks running in two cities, Stockholm and Norwegian capital Oslo, and is expanding to other urban centers. Its two suppliers - Ericsson in Sweden and Huawei and Norway - have been involved in a war of words over the performance of their respective systems, with the Chinese manufacturer claiming to reach peaks of over 90Mbps on the downlink. The Stockholm system claims a 45Mbps peak but independent, real world tests have shown average speeds to be around 12Mbps.

This is in line with the usual gulf between peak and average rates, experienced in wireless networks depending on many variables such as cell loading, user distance from the base station, terrain and so on. Verizon Wireless, for instance, says it is seeing throughput speeds in its LTE network tests that reach peaks between 40Mbps and 50Mbps for download, and 20Mbps to 25Mbps for upload. But average speeds have remained the same, at 5-12Mbps for download and 2-5Mbps for upload.

Now TeliaSonera plans to upgrade its Stockholm network to hit theoretical peaks of 100Mbps and practical maximum rates around 80Mbps. The leap will be achieved with improved backhaul capacity and superior network tuning - which has already enhanced the experience since the last set of independent benchtests, says the carrier.

The Swedish network currently covers central Stockholm plus the nearby Kista Science City, Hammarby Sjostad neighbourhood and the Alvsjo area. This will expand to 25 cities this year, with Q3 seeing launches in Lund, Vasteras, Malmo, Gothenburg, Uppsala and Linkoping. Nokia Siemens recently elbowed into the deal, with a two-year contract to provide LTE RAN kit, network management systems, and multivendor integration services in 2010 and 2011.

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