LONDON, September 27, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

The scale of interest and investment worldwide confirms LTE as being the most important direction for the telecoms industry, according to Alan Hadden, President of the GSA.

In a recent interview with Telecoms IQ, Hadden explained, "LTE is the catalyst for extending the benefits of broadband internet access to the mass market in all regions, and will help to narrow the digital divide. LTE is the fastest developing mobile communications technology ever and represents the next user experience of mobile broadband by offering higher downlink and uplink speeds, more capacity and, importantly, much lower latency."

Hadden continues, "The primary drive towards LTE from operators comes from the need for more network capacity, performance management and improved efficiencies to drive down the unit cost of delivering traffic."

There are an estimated 237 operators in 85 countries investing in LTE with 174 network commitments, 63 pre-commitment trials and studies and more than 26 commercial LTE deployments. Additionally, there are expected to be 93 LTE networks in service by the end of 2012 (source: GSA).

Telecoms IQ's LTE Deployment Strategies conference (http://www.ltedeploymentstrategies.com), to be held in London 8th - 11th November 2011, will provide insight into the issues operators face when migrating to LTE.

The conference will showcase how operators are justifying the business case for deploying LTE networks today and how they are overcoming the challenges of deploying an LTE network that delivers the best ROI.

Hear from a senior expert panel, including:

• Kerstin Günther, Senior Vice President, Mobile and Fixed Network Affairs, Deutsche Telekom
• Basel Al Faqeh, Network Planning and Implementation Director, Zain
• Dr. Yazan Al-Jalili, Senior Advisor Network Planning and Performance, Saudi Telecom Company
• Dragana Linfield, Network Manager, O2 UK
• Sachin Mahajan, Director of Strategy, TELUS

For more information on LTE Deployment Strategies and to download the conference brochure where you will be able to view the full speaker line up, please visit http://www.ltedeploymentstrategies.com.

Notes to editor:

You can read the full Telecoms IQ interview with Alan Hadden in the Download Centre at http://www.ltedeploymentstrategies.com.

If you would like further information or would like to enquire about a press pass to the event, please contact samantha.tanner@iqpc.co.uk, +44(0)20 7368 9300

SOURCE Telecoms IQ