Telstra, Ericsson demonstrate LTE
- Published
Telstra and Ericsson have concluded a trial aggregating 1800 and 2600MHz frequency bands to provide high data rates on the telco's 4G cellular network.
Known as carrier aggregation (CA), the technology is part of the Long Term Evolution Advanced (LTE-A) specification that telcos around the world are considering as part of their ongoing 4G mobile broadband offering.
The technology allows cellular providers to use spectrum in disparate radio-frequency bands as a single transmission channel, for a maximum of 100MHz bandwidth.
In Telstra's case, the trial used 20MHz of 1800MHz spectrum along with 20MHz of 2600MHz. The aggregated bandwidth was sufficient to provide 300Mbps downloads according to Ericsson.
Telstra intends to use carrier aggregation with the lower 700MHz spectrum it will receive now that the analogue television signal in Australia is switched off.
The two companies did not disclose the type of terminals that were used for the test but an earlier LTE-A CA demonstration held in Hong Kong by CSL, part-owned by Telstra, points to Samsung, ZTE and Huawei having devices ready by mid next year, according to a Engadget.