UK Mobile Coverage

Fastest 4G Speed Record Broken

Published: Thursday 1st September 2016

According to a Finnish network operator, a new record has been set for the fastest 4G mobile internet in the world.

According to a Finnish network operator, a new record has been set for the fastest 4G mobile internet in the world.

Elisa said it has reached a speed of 1.9 gigabits per second on a test network; theoretically fast enough to download a Blu-ray movie in 44 seconds.

But analysts are skeptical that such a performance could actually be reproduced in a live network in the real world.

Elisa said that the technology provided by Chinese telecommunications giants Huawei is able to provide speeds very close to the theoretical maximum of 2Gbps.

By comparison, the fastest commercial network speed is currently 300Mbps - less than a sixth of the speed.

The Finnish company's CEO, Veli-Matti Mattila, said, "We know there hasn't been a speed this high announced by any other network."

However in February, a university research team - unconnected with a commercial network provider - managed to reach a 5G mobile speed of 1 terabit per second (Tbps), which is more than fifty times faster than the 4G speed achieved by Elisa.

Regarding commercial applications, Mr Mattila told the BBC that Elisa wants to provide a premium 1Gbps network in Finland in the next "two to three years."

Mobile Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality, as well as "high-quality video to 4K and beyond," are cited by Mr. Mattila's applications that most could benefit from hyper-fast network speeds.

This article is a summary; the source article is at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-37221565

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