Singtel announced that it has achieved peak LTE speeds of 1.5 Gbps using five-carrier aggregation - which it claims as fastest LTE speeds in Asia.
Singtel said it will gradually deploy the new speed across the island as more spectrum bands are allocated for the LTE network.
Smartphones supporting 1.5 Gbps speeds are scheduled to be launched in 2019.
The enhanced network speed was achieved in collaboration with Ericsson with a carrier aggregation of five carriers, which boosts network bandwidth. A combination of two 1800 MHz frequencies, together with 2100 MHz, 2600 MHz and TDD 2500 MHz spectrum bands and technologies such as FDD & TDD, 256QAM and 4X4 MIMO was used to achieve the peak speed of 1.5 Gbps. When introduced in the live network, such capability improves user experience and enhances network capacity. For instance, customers can download a two-hour 4K video in eight minutes, claims Singtel.
Singtel and Ericsson will launch a pilot 5G network in Singapore in the fourth quarter of 2018.
Yuen Kuan Moon, CEO, Consumer Singapore and Group Chief Digital Officer, Singtel
We are constantly investing in innovative technologies to boost network speeds, enhance coverage and expand capacity to give our customers the best network experience.
Martin Wiktorin, Head of Ericsson Singapore, Brunei & the Philippines
By leveraging five-carrier aggregation across both FDD & TDD, we continue to lead the way to meet customers speed and capacity demands. We are proud to be working on new capabilities and advancements on LTE.
