December 14, 2009
First commercial LTE networks launch
TeliaSonera turned on commercial LTELong-Term Evolution — 4G cellular data standard delivering mobile broadband speeds. service in Stockholm and Oslo on December 14, 2009 — the first operator deployment marketed as 4G mobile broadband.
What it was for
LTELong-Term Evolution — 4G cellular data standard delivering mobile broadband speeds. replaced circuit-switched voice assumptions with an all-IPInternet Protocol — the addressing and routing layer that moves packets across networks. radio optimized for data — tens of megabits to phones and LTELong-Term Evolution — 4G cellular data standard delivering mobile broadband speeds. dongles. Developers built streaming video, real-time maps, and push notifications assuming LTELong-Term Evolution — 4G cellular data standard delivering mobile broadband speeds.-class latency and throughput. Verizon and others followed within months, making mobile APIs practical for everyday apps.
Why it's here
TeliaSonera's LTELong-Term Evolution — 4G cellular data standard delivering mobile broadband speeds. launch was the first commercial 4G data network operators could sell to the public.
Why it mattered
LTELong-Term Evolution — 4G cellular data standard delivering mobile broadband speeds. made mobile broadband fast enough to treat phones as primary internet devices.
What it solved
3G capacity and latency could not support HD video and always-on cloud sync at scale.
Related
- NTT DoCoMo launches commercial 3G (FOMA)October 1, 2001
- South Korea launches commercial 5G NRApril 5, 2019