Alcatel:Lucent shows off the LTE car of tomorrow at Mobile World Congress

It has been on the cards for some time now, but it seems that we can finally put the debate to bed: in terms of global take-up, the next generation of mobile broadband will take the form of LTE, with WiMAX providing a niche solution in key areas.

Mobile World Congress sees the globe's movers and shakers in mobile and broadband getting together to talk shop - and sell stuff - and this year the initials 'LTE' have been writ large even more that 'iPhone'. Well, perhaps not quite that much, but it's pretty close.

I spent my morning in Barcelona with Alcatel:Lucent, one of the world leaders in all things broadband when it comes to the boring behind the scenes stuff (and no, not the same Alcatel that makes those cheap handsets you see in supermarkets). It has operations in more than 130 countries and is number one in broadband access worldwide, with more than 40 per cent of the world's DSL market share.

First we took a look at their state-of-the-art LTE prototype car, pictured above. It encapsulates Alcatel:Lucent's vision of the future - and with a research and development budget of 2.5 billion euros, we reckon they know what they're talking about. The concept car has a screen for each seat in the car, which can be operated independently. They can offer up entertainment such as music and films, but the beauty is nothing is stored on hard drive - when LTE really gets going, you'll be able to access all this stuff via mobile broadband directly into the car itself, on the move.

Essentially, LTE is the next step for mobile broadband, with a speed cap well in excess if current fixed-line speeds already being lab tested. So mobile on the move won't be limited to just media - you can also look forward to top quality GPS systems, with all the cars on the road both transmitting and receiving information from road weather conditions to traffic jams. Here is a video of Alcatel:Lucent's Steve West giving some details of the car and the company's vision:

Next I spoke to the company's vice president of wireless networks, marketing and strategy, Jean-Pierre Lartigue. While he recognised complaints about slow mobile broadband speeds in the UK, he was upbeat about the future. He dashed concerns current 3G technology would be left for dead by service providers waiting for LTE, as more and more the background hardware is being built to be scalable for when LTE is fully functional. Look out for the full interview next week in the Genie blog.