Mobile broadband first rolls out in Europe

Slovakia gets Flash OFDM

T-Mobile and Siemens have announced the first rollout of mobile broadband in Europe.

The broadband access technology will be based on Flarion's Flash OFDM technology - a competitor to WiMax - and will be available to Slovakians in and around the capital Bratislava and 19 other regions in the eastern European country.

Slovakians will be able to reach speeds of up to 1Mbps on their wireless devices, according to T-Mobile.

The deal is the first public rollout of the technology, now owned by Qualcomm, since Siemens signed an OEM agreement with Flarion late last year.

Ovum analysts Dan Bieler and Julien Grivolas said in a research note: "The fact that the first signing is a T-Mobile subsidiary in eastern Europe is far from a surprise, as T-Mobile Ventures was an investor in Flarion and there is a close relationship between the operator and the German vendor."

Slovakia is currently one of the least connected countries in Europe, with just one per cent of the population connected via broadband, according to the EU.