OREANDA-NEWS. March 01, 2010. EMT made the first 4G data transmission connection and launched Estonia’s first 4G test network, reported the press-centre of EMT.

„As 4G network testing was successful, Estonian mobile customers will soon be able to use 4G commercial services,“, said Valdo Kalm, CEO of EMT. „According to our knowledge, this is the first 4G test network in Eastern Europe and one of the first in the world.”

Tonu Grunberg, Director of Development and Technology of EMT noted that 4G stands foremost for advancement of mobile internet. „Perhaps we can not foresee all possibilities that 4G will offer, but mobile communication will certainly become more interactive and thus areas of mobile usage will broaden greatly“.

According to Tonu Grunberg, EMT will launch 4G commercially when there is complete technical readiness to offer high quality 4G services and allocation of 4G commercial licenses is completed. “Also, easy availability of 4G consumer devices must be considered.”

4G (fourth generation of cellular wireless standards) enables high speed data transmission. 4G is up to five times faster than current 3G network and is comparable with broadband network. With 4G, many new services become possible, for example, mobile TV in high definition, mobile conference calls and high-tech virtual reality applications. In EMT 4G network, data transmission reaches speeds up to 100 Mbps, average speed ranges between 20 and 80 Mbps. Currently, EMT 4G test network is operational at EMT Center in Solaris.

4G devices are supplied by Ericsson. Ericsson is the key supplier of fourth generation mobile network devices for the whole TeliaSonera group, to which EMT belongs. Ericsson has already signed 4G agreements with several major mobile operators like Verizon and MetroPCS in the United States and NTT DoCoMo in Japan. 4G devices will be manufactured at Ericsson factory in Tallinn.

Samsung modem is used in EMT 4G test environment as the end user device.

As the first operator in the world, TeliaSonera launched 4G services to customers in Stockholm and Oslo at the end of 2009. TeliaSonera hopes that the 4G network roll-out will continue in 2010 to Sweden’s 25 largest cities and to Norway’s four largest cities.

Veiko Sepp, CEO of Ericsson in Estonia spoke about production of 4G devices and noted that 4G devices have the potential of becoming the biggest export article of Estonia.

First 4G base station in Estonia was opened collectively by Parts, Kalm, Grunberg and Sepp.