TeliaSonera launches Turbo 3G in Sweden

TeliaSonera Sweden is now launching tests of a new high-speed mobile broadband network. In areas of Stockholm and Gothenburg, the mobile network has been enhanced with new High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) technology, also called Turbo 3G, which gives customers wireless Internet connections that are almost ten times faster than connection speeds in the ordinary 3G network.

All Telia customers in the test areas can connect via Turbo 3G if they have a mobile telephone or portable computer with PC card that is HSPA-enabled. With the new technology, it will be faster and simpler for customers to connect wirelessly with their computer and surf, send messages and documents or download music, images and films.

“We are seeing how more and more customers want faster wireless broadband in order to ‘take the Internet’ with them so they can perform tasks that they usually do at home or at the office,” says Håkan Dahlström, Head of Mobility Services in TeliaSonera Sweden. “A survey of our customers indicated that Stockholmers have the highest expectations among people in Sweden for being able to connect wirelessly in parks and other outdoor areas. With Turbo 3G, we can now offer them even better possibilities for realising this.”

During the trial period, which runs until this autumn, customers using Turbo 3G will pay the rates included in the regular price list for mobile data service.

The Telia Trend Report 2007 indicated that more than one of out three people in Stockholm expect to be able to use wireless Internet connections in parks or other outdoor areas, followed immediately by people living in the southwest province of Skåne, and in western Norrland, who have almost the same high expectations for wireless outdoor connections.

TeliaSonera has been offering speeds up to 384 Kbps in its mobile network since earlier. During 2007, the entire GSM network will be enhanced with EDGE technology, which will give customers speeds of approximately 200 Kbps almost anywhere in Sweden. Today, 75 percent of TeliaSonera’s Swedish mobile network is equipped with EDGE. The mobile network is currently being built out and will cover 90 percent of the country’s land area by the end of 2008.