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The next generation of super-fast wireless connectivity is upon us as Samsung Electronics has announced the launch of the first commercially available LTE dongle, in partnership with TeliaSonera, in Stockholm, Sweden and Oslo, Norway, offering download speeds of up to 100 Mbps.
The reason this initial launch is so geographically constrained is that there aren't that many LTE networks yet. But the Scandinavians have continued their tradition of mobile communications leadership and TeliaSonera does have LTE networks in these two cities.
At the TeliaSonera launch event, the Swedish minister for communications theatrically put a 4G dongle into a laptop and, apparently, got a connection.
"We are very proud to be the first operator in the world to offer our customers 4G services. Thanks to the successful cooperation with Samsung we can offer 4G to our customers in Sweden and Norway earlier than originally planned," says Kenneth Karlberg, President and Head of Mobility Services, TeliaSonera.
The model name for Samsung's LTE dongle is GT-B3710. It contains Samsung's own LTE modem chip, called Kalmia and connects to a PC via good, old USB. An updated version, which offers backward compatibility with LTE, HSPA, and EDGE, will be launched in the first half of 2010. The price of the dongle wasn't specified.
