O2 UK achieves 150 Mbps over LTE using Huawei equipment

Yesterday TeliaSonera turned on the worldly concern’s first commercial message LTE net, and earlier this month I posted a lengthy tilt of operators around the worldly concern currently committed or trialing LTE equipment. Add O2 (NYSE: TEF) to that list, they’ve just successfully completed a trial of Huawei equipment in the Slough expanse of the UK, where O2 HQ are located, and achieved a download speed of 150 Mbps!

Derek McManus, CTO of O2 UK, said: “We are pleased to collaborate with Huawei on this LTE test, which volition allow us to better understand this emerging engineering and prepare us in oblation our customers next multiplication mobile broadband services in the future.”

Pablo subgenus Chen, Head of Huawei Telefуnica O2 Key Account, said: “Huawei is very keen to be involved with the Telefуnica O2 UK trials for LTE/SAE engineering. We have demonstrated our res publica-of-the-artistic creation mobile technologies and capability to deliver on our hope. These trials volition spring an excellent reference to Telefуnica O2 for the evaluation of LTE engineering.”

No word on when O2, or any other UK operator, volition go live with their LTE network. The 2.6 gigahertz spectrum that most, if not all EU operators volition use for LTE has yet to be auctioned off in the UK. Estimates nog the auction sale to occur some time during 2010. Can’t be more particular than that.