NGMN testing success

Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN) technology has been successfully tested under everyday conditions for the first time, T-Mobile and Norton have announced.

Long Term Evolution (LTE) was used as an example for the trial, which involved sending data to and from a vehicle driving through Bonn, between the T-Mobile building on the right of the Rhine and Deutsche Telekom's on the left.

Transmission took place smoothly across the whole four-kilometre test track, with no quality loss across different cells, which the companies say is an important factor for a mobile communications network.

"This early field trial is an important step for both companies to test LTE's extensive capabilities and demonstrate innovative LTE applications," said Richard Lowe, president of carrier networks at Nortel.

"Ongoing joint-testing of LTE in a real mobile operator network will expand understanding of the benefits and performance characteristics of LTE technology."

The second part of testing will see applications which require large amounts of latency and bandwidth, such as HDTV or online gaming, be put through their paces.