Samsung rolled out long term evolution (LTE) service, a next-generation wireless technology, for the first time in northern Europe on Monday using Samsung's LTE equipment, the company said.

Samsung said TeliaSonera AB, a Swedish provider of telecommunications services, started commercial LTE service using Samsung's LTE dongle in Stockholm, Sweden and Oslo, Norway.

From today, TeliaSonera begins offering commercial Samsung LTE dongles (Model Name: GT-B3710) for customers in Stockholm, Sweden and in Oslo, Norway. The introduction of the commercial dongle follows the announcement in October about TeliaSonera?s selection of Samsung as its 4G device provider.

Customers in Sweden and Norway can now enjoy maximum download speeds of 100 Mbps in 4G, which is ten times faster than the speed of the current ?Turbo 3G? service. TeliaSonera?s LTE service is the world?s first commercialization and will open up new possibilities for customers to enjoy the benefits of high-speed data service on their laptops, such as advanced web TV broadcasting, online gaming and web conferencing.

Samsung?s LTE dongle (Model name: GT-B3710) can be connected to a laptop computer or other portable devices via USB. The dongle incorporates Samsung?s in-house developed LTE modem chip, branded Kalmia, and supports 2.6GHz band for LTE service. Samsung?s LTE solution is compliant with the latest 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) LTE Release 8 (Rel-8) standard. Samsung will also provide an updated version of USB dongle, which offers backward compatibility to LTE, HSPA, and EDGE service, in the first half of 2010.

LTE is one of the next-generation technologies for mobile wireless supported by major phone companies, along with WiMax, which is largely backed by cable companies. Both technologies allow remote access to the Internet at a speed much faster than currently available third-generation wireless technology.