Unstrung reports that the remaining specification work on next-generation mobile broadband standard LTE has now been completed. Although the majority of the specifications had been agreed last December, work on agreeing System Architecture Evolution (SAE) and Evolved Packet Core (EPC) specs were delayed until March 2009. Unstrung notes that, at a meeting of the 3GPP standards body last month, these last remaining specs were finalised and added (along with previous work on the radio access network) to the 3GPP’s Release 8 set of standards.

The majority of the world’s most high-profile mobile operators have already opted for LTE as their technology of choice for next-generation mobile communications. US operator Verizon announced its choice of radio access network vendors – Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson – at February’s GSMA Mobile World Congress and plans to launch commercial services next year. Meanwhile, tier one operators such as NTT DoCoMo and China Mobile are also prepping deployment. Industry reports have already suggested that 26 operators worldwide have so far committed to LTE.