SK Telecom activated the world’s first commercial tri-band LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) service, boasting downlink speeds of up to 300 Mbps by aggregating three component carriers in three different frequency bands: 20MHz bandwidth in 1.8GHz band, 10MHz bandwidth in 800MHz band, and 10MHz bandwidth in 2.1GHz band.
At peak speed, the service is capable of downloading a 1GB movie in only 28 seconds.
In order to provide tri-band LTE-A service, base stations that support three different frequency bands are required and all three component carriers must intersect.
Samsung’s Galaxy Note 4 S-LTE is the first tri-band LTE-A capable device.
SK Telecom said that since it has already secured Wideband LTE-A coverage in the main areas of all cities across South Korea – meaning that it already has in place 800MHz and 1.8GHz base stations – it can offer tri-band LTE-A service by simply adding 2.1GHz base stations. The company plans to build more than 26,000 2.1GHz base stations within the first quarter of 2015 to provide its customers with the fastest mobile telecommunications service in Seoul/ Seoul Metropolitan Area, central areas of all cities nationwide as well as all subway lines in Korea.
SK Telecom also has plans for 4-band and 5-band carrier aggregation on its roadmap to realizing 5G service.
