EU to invest $25M into LTE research

The European Union said it plans to invest more than $25 million beginning in 2010 into research in support of LTE-based wireless networks. LTE-based network are expected to begin launching in Europe in early 2010.
In the U.S., Verizon Wireless has said it plans to launch LTE trial networks in Boston and Seattle by the end of the year using its 700 MHz spectrum and recently completed the first test calls over the 4G networks.
While specific spectrum has yet to be set aside for LTE deployments in Europe, EU member states recently ratified a proposal to allow carriers to use their 900 MHz band spectrum holdings for LTE services. The 900 MHz spectrum band was set aside specifically for deploying GSM-based networks.
The EU said it spent more than $35 million between 2004 and 2007 on research and optimization of the LTE standard. The European Commission also recently announced plans to invest more than $25 million into research into the LTE Advanced version of the standard, which is expected to provide mobile broadband speeds up to 1 gigabit per second.