TeliaSonera launches LTE in Finland

One whole year after TeliaSonera launched LTE in Sweden and Norway they’ve finally brought it to the country I call home: Finland. The service works using the 1.8 GHz and 2.6 GHz frequencies, which are not in line with European Union recommendations. The EU says that they’d like to see the entire continent using the 800 MHz band by the start of 2013. It isn’t a surprise to see TeliaSonera using the 2.6 GHz band however since that’s what they used in both Sweden and Norway. Speeds should hit between 20 Mbps and 80 Mbps, which is sort of like saying the cable guy is going to come visit your home between 9 in the morning and 5 in the afternoon. You’ll have to shell out 46 Euros a month to get access to this LTE network, and you’ll have to sign a 2 year contract on top of that. Why? You’ll get a free Samsung modem that can do LTE, 3G, EDGE, and even GPRS should you find yourself in a remote region of the country.

Coverage right now is limited to the cities of Turku and Helsinki, but that’s set to expand dramatically rather quickly. Those wondering what the service is called will be upset to hear that TeliaSonera is slapping the 4G sticker on this service even though the ITU (International Telecommunications Union) has said that only WiMAX 2 and LTE-Advanced are worthy of that name.

Unlike Elisa, TeliaSonera’s competitor and the largest operator in Finland which has unlimited speed across all their data tiers, you just pay more for more speed, TeliaSonera’s LTE service has an uncapped speed, but you’ll be limited to 30 GB per month. Considering TeliaSonera recently revealed that their average LTE customer does 15 GB a month, that should be enough for plenty. What happens after you hit 30 GB? That hasn’t been revealed. Maybe they don’t even think that’s possible. They obviously haven’t seen how many external hard drives are in my closet.

[Via: Light Reading]

About The Author

Stefan Constantinescu

Stefan Constantinescu (@WhatTheBit on Twitter) has loved technology since as far back as he can remember. It started with computers, but in the past few years his passion has turned to mobile devices. As a mobile phone enthusiast who lives and breathes devices that connect to the internet, he knows he is not alone with this radical fascination of all things wireless. He is strongly opinionated and enjoys a good debate so leave comments in his posts and he’ll get back to you! Stefan began blogging as a hobby in the fall of 2006 and joined IntoMobile in the summer of 2007. Later he got a job at Nokia in March 2008, but as of June 2009 he has rejoined the IntoMobile team. He is currently based out of Helsinki, Finland.

TheSpectrumGuy

Just to clarify that 2,6 GHz is a standard LTE spectrum here in Europe. In fact, that is the only spectrum where there are some user equipment currently available. 1,8 GHz won’t see any equipment until 2013-15 and the same applies to the 800 MHz equipment. In Finland the 800 MHz band can not be made available due the Russians who are have reserved the band for military applications. That will hopefully change in the future…
TheSpectrumGuy

Just to clarify that 2,6 GHz is a standard LTE spectrum here in Europe. In fact, that is the only spectrum where there are some user equipment currently available. 1,8 GHz won’t see any equipment until 2013-15 and the same applies to the 800 MHz equipment. In Finland the 800 MHz band can not be made available due the Russians who are have reserved the band for military applications. That will hopefully change in the future…
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_IVFCATSFPLYDSNYNZY7K2QBZKU Matthew

wow Wimax and soon to be activated LTE charge $50 U.S. a month. The data speeds might come close in perfect conditions to 10Mbps, and one says unlimted thats wimax, but verizon’s LTE is limited to 5GB a month. Not to mention 2 year contract and paying $100 for the modems.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_IVFCATSFPLYDSNYNZY7K2QBZKU Matthew

i had verizon wireless and they charged $30 a month unlimited, for my data plan on my smartphone. Later on i downgraded it to a lower data plan because the internet sucked and was way to slow on my blackberry. So anyways went with the only other data plan they had besides the $30 plan went down to a $15 data plan a month and i get 150Mb a month. Can you believe that joke 150Mb a month, so i switched to T-Mobile and there data plan on there phones are $30 a month unlimited or $10 a month for 200MB cheaper and 50 extra Mbs i figured, wish it was like 1GB a month but hey i try and use my home wifi obviously when im at home.