Poland has become the fourth country in the world to have a commercial LTE network. Polish operators CenterNet and Mobyland have collaborated to launch LTE services in the 1.8GHz band.

According to a company statement, project "LTE 1800MHz" is the first commercial LTE technology network in a harmonized frequency band of 1800MHz (band 3 according to the 3GPP standard) to be launched in Poland and will allow the service to be commenced using the channel with the maximum standardized band of 20MHz.

The cutting-edge technology will allow data download with an initial speed of 153 Mbps (and ultimately at 326 Mbps) and data upload of 48 Mbps (and ultimately at 86 Mbps).

The project “LTE 1800MHz” will be commenced in all locations where GSM 1800 has been in use, which means that the signal will be available both in large cities and smaller locations. 

“In August alone we filed 355 applications for radio frequency permits which we are most likely to obtain tomorrow. Our plans assume that at the end of 2010 the number of base stations in operation will reach 700 and the LTE network will cover over 7 million people,” says Adam Kuriański, the President of CenterNet and a board member of Mobyland. 

Mobyland’s objective is to develop a wireless telecommunications network based on LTE to replace existing solutions. The buildout of an independent network is made possible by radio frequencies held by Mobyland and its partner company CenterNet. In November 2007, Mobyland and CenterNet won a tender organized by the President of the Polish Electronic Communications Office and received dedicated frequencies in the 1800 MHz band. The LTE project of Mobyland and CenterNet allows them to make use of their radio resources in an innovative manner to implement the LTE technology, flexible both in terms of frequency and the channel width. To carry out the project Mobyland has selected Huawei as the supplier of its LTE technology network solutions.