TeliaSonera has just managed to deliver on its promise of offering a dualmode LTE dongle by the second quarter of 2010. The Nordic operator yesterday announced today’s launch of its latest Samsung device in Stockholm and Visby which supports both LTE and older 3G and 2G technology. The new GT-B3730 dongle supports Windows XP, Vista and 7, as well as Mac OS 10.5 or 10.6 software. TeliaSonera launched the world’s first commercial LTE networks in Sweden and Norway at the end of last year, but the initial Samsung dongle only supported LTE, meaning users were confined to areas where the next-generation technology was available when using mobile broadband services. There is a slight catch with the new dualmode device though; the new modem cannot automatically switch between LTE and HSPA networks. Instead, the user has to shut down the connection and then reconnect when moving between the two networks. Software upgrades to networks and modems will make seamless switching a possibility by the beginning of next year, TeliaSonera said. The operator’s existing LTE customers can upgrade to the new modem at no extra cost.

TeliaSonera has promised to launch LTE in 25 Swedish cities by the end of 2010 and four cities in Norway. Services are currently live in Stockholm, Visby and Oslo. A “pre-commercial” network in the Finnish city of Turku will also be available from today.  It is expected to follow the Finland launch with a similar deployment in Denmark and in the Baltic region where it has subsidiaries in Estonia (EMT), Lithuania (Omnitel) and Latvia (LMT).