Telstra has demonstrated downlink speeds of 450 Mbps using LTE Advanced Carrier Aggregation across a trial combination of 1800MHz and 2600MHz bands over its live network.
Telstra worked with Ericsson to install equipment for two new 4G Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD) channels of 20MHz bandwidth each on the 2600MHz spectrum band (40MHz FDD), aggregated with live 20MHz of 4G on the 1800MHz band. The result was three simultaneous side-by-side paths for the data to travel through to the operational core network. Telstra also used an advanced prototype Cat 9 engineering device that could combine the three channels to achieve these speeds.
“Conducting this type of test is a significant step in the network engineering and development process. It is essential for us to see how this type of technology works in the live network and understand what needs to be done to continue to absorb the exploding demand in mobile broadband and offer an exceptional customer experience,” Mike Wright, Group Managing Director Telstra Networks.
”Telstra has the largest holding of APT700MHz and 2600MHz spectrum in Australia and we expect we will eventually be able to offer this service across much if not most of our mobile network footprint, allowing more of our customers to benefit from improved capacity and faster speeds,” said Mr Wright.
In February 2014, Ericsson and Qualcomm Technologies conducted the first inter-vendor interoperability testing of LTE Category 6, which promises potential speeds of up to 300 Mbps.
The final stages of testing, which were completed in collaboration with Telstra, was based on ready-to-release versions of Ericsson’s L14A software release. Ericsson said its L14A software leverages load balancing for better spectrum efficiency and improved user experience during high-load situations. It supports all bandwidth and frequency combinations for up to 40MHz Carrier Aggregation, providing users with speeds of up to 300 Mbps. The test also used Qualcomm;s fourth-generation 3G/LTE multimode modem, the Qualcomm Gobi 9×35 chipset.
