Weather may have frozen Motorola plans for 4G mobile broadband trials

The development of Motorolas 4G mobile broadband technology, know as the Long Term Evolution of 3G or LTE for short, has kept Motorola very busy lately and its UK field trial we due to begin at its Swindon testing lab recently.

Motorola was set to begin trials that would have seen the testing of simultaneous voice calls and data streaming on LTE with the use of a prototype device that has yet to be named, however, confirmation of whether the planned trials have gone ahead or not has yet to be established due to the effect that the recent adverse weather conditions that has affected almost every region of the country has had on the testing.

The two technologies that are battling to attain the 4G title and become the preferred conduit for wireless data transmission using mobile phones are WiMax and LTE.

Senior vice president and general manager of Motorola Home and Network Mobility, EMEA and Asia Pacific, Joe Cozzolino said “Motorola is at the forefront of 4G development which will address the mobility demands of today’s consumers who are looking for personalized media experiences and operators looking to lower their cost per bit and gain a competitive advantage. With our latest trial network we look forward to working closely with our customers in EMEA as they transition to LTE during 2009 and beyond.”

It has also been announced that having spent billions for 3G Licences, with around £23 billion spent between 2000 and 2006, Vodafone have now announced that it has been performing HSPA+ trials recently. Claims that it has hit 16Mbps during its HPSA+ trials have been made by the world’s largest mobile network, although ‘theoretical’ top speeds of several hundred gigabits per second have been promised by Motorola’s LTE technology.