Unstrung reports that the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) last week agreed on an initial set of specifications for Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology, to be included in the 3GPP’s new Release 8 set of standards. “LTE is on target and we completed the task as expected,” Adrian Scrase, VP of international partnership projects at ETSI, told Unstrung. The moves follows the 3GPP agreement last year on the standard’s radio access network Requirements and Architectural documentation. However, the Unstrung report notes that Release 8 work on agreeing System Architecture Evolution (SAE) core network specifications lags behind LTE, and has been given an extension to March 2009. 

The majority of the world’s most high-profile mobile operators have already opted for LTE – a member of the GSM family of technologies – as their technology of choice for next-generation mobile communications. Verizon has conducted lab trials of LTE using kit from vendor Nortel Networks and could launch services as early as next year. Japan’s NTT DoCoMo is also regarded as a world pioneer for LTE, publicly targeting a 2010 launch.