Sweden is set to receive the fastest mobile network in Europe following upgrades to be carried out by a group of Swedish companies, the company said. Telecoms equipment manufacturer Ericsson, as well as operators 3 and Tele2, plan to bring Sweden’s mobile network up to 21 Mbits/second, the Dagens Nyheter (DN) newspaper reported.

Tele2 said it plans to launch the upgraded network in the first quarter of 2009, while 3 projects its commercial launch will take place in April of next year, by which time equipment capable of the enhanced speeds should also be available. “Today’s network can manage speeds of up to 14.4 Mbits/second, but so far mobile phone manufacturers haven’t produced dongles that can reach those speeds,” 3 spokesperson Erik Hornfeldt told DN, referring to the piece of hardware users plug into computers in order to surf the Internet via the mobile phone network.