Nokia Siemens this week announced the world’s first multi-user urban field trial of LTE wireless broadband technology, which is quickly becoming the leader in the race for the dominant fourth generation wireless broadband standard both here and abroad. The company said the tests used 20MHz of overseas bandwidth in the 2.6GHz spectrum, and achieved data rates of more than 100 megabits per second over distances of several hundred meters. From a statement:At the moment, there's three front-runners for the fourth-generation wireless broadband crown: 3GPP LTE (Long Term Evolution), mobile WiMax and 3GPP2 UMB (Ultra Mobile Broadband). All three standards will offer low latency and theoretical max speeds that will eventually make current US EVDO and HSDPA speeds seem anemic. However, LTE is officially leading the 4G push.

Sprint, of course, is hitching their wagon to Mobile WiMax under the Xohm name. AT&T has said they're planning on migrating toward LTE. Verizon Wireless recently confirmed they would be embracing LTE as well, in order to have a unified standard across both their network and the network of European partner Vodafone.