TeliaSonera’s commercial LTE network in Stockholm and Oslo is producing average downlink data rates of 16.8 Mb/s and 32.1 Mb/s, respectively, according to a new report from Signals Research Group that is claimed to be “by far the most scientific and exhaustive independent performance analysis ever conducted of an LTE network.” The consultancy transferred nearly 186GB of data in tests to reach its findings, virtually all from vehicular or pedestrian mode. Test equipment from Accuver was used, and recorded a number of important KPIs, including peak download speeds in Stockholm of 50 Mb/s and 85 Mb/s in Oslo. Read a preview of the report here. It’s worth noting that TeliaSonera’s deployment of LTE is at an early stage, and the performance of the network is likely to come under greater strain as the service expands and usage increases.

The findings come at a crucial period for development of next-generation mobile technologies. TeliaSonera became the first commercial operator in the world to launch LTE services at the end of last year – offering a dongle from Samsung (pictured) – and its network speeds have been closely monitored. The operator itself has not been shy in hyping the technology, claiming “mobile broadband speeds up to a maximum speed of 100 Mb/s,” which are “up to 10 times higher than with Turbo-3G.” An early test from Nordic analyst firm Northstream in January stated that TeliaSonera’s LTE data rates “never exceeded 12 Mb/s in downlink” and the service was prone to dipping, although it added that “more impressive… was the 5 Mb/s uplink.” However, a few days later Northstream updated its initial findings following more live testing, declaring that the firm experienced data rates above 25 Mb/s “more often than below, and we’ve reached 45 Mb/s downlink on some occasions.” US operator Verizon Wireless recently stated that the launch of its own LTE network later this year will enable average downlink data rates per user of 5-12 Mb/s and 2-5 Mb/s in the uplink.