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Orange and Ericsson have completed a live LTE-Advanced FDD trial, a carrier aggregation testing on 3.4-3.6 GHz (3.5 GHz) frequencies for testing data speeds and coverage. The live LTE-Advanced FDD testing which was authorized by the French regulator ARCEP, was carried out in October-November 2014 on Orange's network in Bordeaux using Ericsson's pre-commercial equipment.
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According to a statement by Ericsson, the first phase of the trial was performed at the Orange Labs in Paris, where speeds of 300 Mbps were achieved by using the 3.5 GHz band in aggregation with the 2.6 GHz band. The second phase was carried out on Orange's live mobile network and was based on Ericsson's pre-commercial FDD 3.5 GHz radio base station equipment.
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Ericsson said that the testing also confirms that the existing network grid can be reused for a 3.5 GHz macro grid; in Bordeaux, the trials used the same grid as the 1800 MHz and 2.6 GHz bands. For the trial, new antennas supporting the 3.5 GHz band were installed at the Le Ponant and Meriadeck sites in the city center of Bordeaux.
Alain Maloberti, Senior Vice President, Orange Labs Networks
This live FDD trial demonstrated that the 3.5 GHz band can be successfully used in urban and suburban environments in stand-alone mode or in aggregation with another band to provide advanced mobile broadband services using a FDD access scheme for high peak data rate applications to enhance user experience.
Thomas Noren, Vice President, Head of Radio Product Management, Ericsson
This live FDD trial also demonstrated that the macro coverage of 3.5 GHz spectrum is suitable for providing substantial capacity gains that can satisfy future consumer needs.
