- Nokia Networks and Saudi Telecom Company (STC), the leading telecom operator in Saudi Arabia, have announced the successful demonstration of TDD-FDD Carrier Aggregation. According to both companies, the demonstration is the first in the Middle East and Africa to use a commercial chipset, and was carried out using a combination of the FDD 1800 MHz band and the TDD 2300 MHz band. The combination of 1800 and 2300 MHz bands provides higher speed in larger areas and sets a benchmark for operators to optimally use their scarce spectrum resources and significantly improve LTE network capacity, coverage and speed, said Nokia.
- Nokia added that high frequency bands have limited uplink coverage, but operators can significantly extend TDD coverage with TDD-FDD carrier aggregation with no additional changes to the network, while the load balancing between TDD- and FDD-LTE networks ensures the best coverage and speed for all subscribers on both networks.
Abdullah Alzmame, VP, Networks, STC
We have a strong track record with Nokia: Early this year we launched carrier aggregation on the TDD layer, doubling available throughput for our customers. In 2011, we provided commercial service on a TD-LTE network which now covers most of the Saudi population. With this new achievement, we enter the next level to improve speeds for consumers.
Hani Dib, Head STC Customer Team, Nokia Networks
We believe that the optimal use of spectrum is key to satisfy ever-increasing subscriber demand for network capacity and speed. Our achievement with STC will encourage other operators globally to look at this kind of spectrum convergence to save costs and increase throughput.
