Viviane Reding, the EU's Commissioner for Telecoms and Media, has said the European Union will invest €18 million (around £15.3 million) in research for the next generation of mobile networks. From January 2010 the EU will fund research on Long Term Evolution Advanced technology, which promises mobile internet speeds up to a hundred times faster than current 3G networks.
Existing LTE technology is up to ten times faster than 3G mobile networks and is expected to launch in a number of European countries next year. LTE Advanced is a further ten times faster than LTE; the research is expected to involve industry and research personnel from Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden and the UK. [Press release]