Mobile operators are pushing for LTE to be rolled out early in light of huge growth in the current mobile network traffic although massive upgrades will be required to stay apace of the high speed mobile platform which will enhance performance and add capacity.

The chief architect for Motorola’s wireless infrastructure, Paul Steinberg advised that for the rapid escalation of traffic loads that are being faced by network operators on their HSPA and 4G networks, LTE is a logical and necessary migration path. A 6 to 14 times increase is being reported by most operators over 2008 according to Steinberg, whereas there has only been a 10 to 30 percent annual increase in revenue from data traffic. He said “3.5G networks will struggle with mass market mobile data adoption,”

Reasonable traffic profiles that Steinberg cited from recent ComScore research saw that by 2011 for mobile users, typical users with just a mobile would use data ranging from 2.7GB whilst heavy users would use 11.1GB worth of data using both a laptop and handset to access the mobile network.

He advised that the implementation of expensive cell splitting would be required within their existing infrastructure if operators don’t take up LTE because of the lack of available spectrum. Also, to support the increase in load an upgrading of both core networks and their backhaul would also be required. The rollout of LTE may be due as early as the end of 2009 by an expanding number of operators in an effort to reduce the current load issues on their existing 3G network.

According to Motorola the deployment of LTE in 2009 is so far being planned by at least six operators and a date of 2010 has been set down by a further 10 operators. 1.8 billion of the worlds’ current 3.5 billion mobile users will be covered by these combined operators.  It’s likely that Mobile broadband users will see the greatest benefit from these improvements.

Performance is considered to be one of the main benefits of LTE over the current HPSA networks. Motorola said “HSDPA is shared, so with a 7.2Mbps system, the effective throughput is probably around 1.9Mbps. With LTE, in the same 5MHz spectrum, the effective throughput is probably around 7.85Mbps.”