3 Hong Kong has completed an end-to-end FDD and TDD LTE-Advanced (Lte-A) commercial network demonstration using carrier aggregation (CA) technology by partnering with Huawei and leveraging terminals powered by Qualcomm Technologies. The two companies also showcased an integrated FDD-TDD network across both the FDD and TDD standards within intra-band or inter-band carriers across different spectrums to deliver the higher data transmission rate and which can support innovative applications for the Internet-of-Things. The trial saw the Operator using Huawei One LTE Solution to aggregate an FDD carrier spectrum in the 1800 MHz or 2600 MHz band with TDD 2300 MHz spectrum.
According to Huawei, the converged network will increase network speeds and provide remarkable telecoms services for 3 Hong Kong users. Huawei added that devices that can support 2CC FDD and TDD LTE-A standards will be available early next year and 3 Hong Kong is expected to launch the respective network around that time. Additionally, 3 Hong Kong is in the deployment phase of 3CC CA-capable LTE-A networks, which it aims to make available for commercial launch in the second half of next year.
Peter Wong, Chief Executive Officer and Group Managing Director of HTHKH, Hong Kong
(We) plan to re-farm the 900 and 2100 MHz spectrums for our LTE network in the near future, and we remain committed to establishing a 5CC LTE-A network. 3 Hong Kong has combined the strengths of mobile, fixed and Wi-Fi networks. As the largest Wi-Fi service provider in Hong Kong, our Wi-Fi network has already adopted the advanced 802.11ac standard, providing speeds up to 1.3 Gbps.
Ryan Ding, President of Products & Solutions at Huawei
FDD LTE and TDD LTE convergence has become an irreversible trend. With the rapid development of mobile Internet services, the available spectrum is becoming increasingly scarce. Operators are eager to discover how they can use the LTE FDD and TDD spectrums to get the best from their resources. LTE TDD can easily resolve capacity issues due to its rich spectrum resources and technological advantages in multiple-antenna systems and other breakthroughs.
