Motorola has completed its first over-the-air data transmission using Long-Term Evolution technology over 700MHz spectrum.

Darren McQueen, Motorola's vice president for wireless broadband access technologies, says that the company's LTE field test is laying the groundwork for an eventual commercial LTE deployment next year. Motorola conducted the field test by using its LTE Radio Access Test Network and its LTE eNode-B platform to send data to an LTE prototype device.

Motorola's LTE field test comes just days after the company announced that it will be consolidating its mobile phone platforms to Windows Mobile and Google Android in an effort both to save money and to focus on what the company believes will be the two most successful platforms for high-speed data services such as LTE.

LTE, considered by many analysts to be the next big wave in 4G wireless technology, is due to be launched commercially in 2010 by Verizon and AT&T, roughly two years after the Clearwire coalition's big commercial WiMAX launch kicked off in September.

LTE is a modulation technique that is the latest variation of Global Systems for Mobile Communications (GSM) technology. Its developers at the 3rd Generation Partnership Project dubbed it "Long Term Evolution" because they view it as the natural progression of High-Speed Packet Access, the GSM technology that is used by carriers such as AT&T to deliver 3G mobile broadband.