Long Term Evolution (LTE), the mobile broadband technology, will provide a real and viable alternative to fixed lines.

According to Electronics Weekly, Vodafone has claimed that the fourth-generation technology has a theoretical maximum speed of 100Mb, which puts it on a similar level to fibre-to-the-home broadband.

Speaking at the Wireless 2.0 conference in Bristol, Vodafone's R&D Director Professor Michael Walker explained that the first real field tests have seen LTE exhibit average download speeds of 15Mb.

"People think wireless can't compete with fixed link, but it can," he was quoted by the publication as saying.

The mobile broadband expert also noted that Vodafone would attempt to take lessons from its experience with 3G when rolling out LTE.

"3G was going to give 1Mb but in some places you were lucky to get 300Kb. It's not going to be like that with LTE," Professor Walker concluded.

Despite Vodafone's support for LTE, PC Pro reported this week that Ericsson believes the infrastructure will not be in place for the technology to be introduced in the UK until 2012.