April 20, 2010 - Danish mobile network operator TDC will be rolling out the LTE based next generation of the mobile network which in the coming years will offer Danes mobile broadband speeds three to four times higher than what is currently possible.

"We are confident that we will be issued one of the licences that are currently put up for auction. If we get the licence, we could technically open the LTE network already in June," says Carsten Dilling, President of TDC Operations & Wholesale.

Initially, TDC is planning to roll out LTE in Copenhagen and Aarhus and from here continue roll-out to the most densely populated areas in the rest of Denmark. During the first phase, TDC will use the new network for testing to gather experience before allowing customers access. This will be conducted when new modems and telephones are available that can use the LTE network together with the existing mobile network.  

"LTE is one of the cornerstones of TDC's network strategy which is aimed at giving our customers the best broadband experience in Denmark. In this context, LTE supports the increasing need for higher network capacity and speed in the coming years, and it is therefore important that we start using the technology and gather experience as quickly as possible," Carsten Dilling explains.

TDC already has many thousands of customers using the existing 3G mobile network which is still being heavily expanded. At the end of May, the network speed will be dramatically increased in six of the largest Danish cities, from the current, theoretical 7.2 Mbps to the 21 Mbps standard. TDC also has plans to roll out the increased speed to all large urban communities before the end of 2010.

When TDC's LTE network is opened to customers, it is expected to offer theoretical speeds of more than 150 Mbps. However, the speed that the individual customer will experience will probably be considerably lower due to local radio frequency conditions and because customers on a mobile network share the available capacity. In practice, TDC expects that the customers will experience approximate download speeds of 15 Mbps.

The upload speed and response times in an LTE network have been improved considerably and can be expected to be twice as fast as what is offered by the existing 3G technology. Among other things, this will improve the online gaming performance.