Ericsson and Telstra have recently demonstrated the next step in LTE carrier aggregation, combining for the first time five carriers to achieve download speeds of up to 1 Gbps using a live end-to-end mobile network. In the test, downlink speeds were achieved by aggregating 100 MHz of spectrum across the 700 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz and 2600 MHz (2 x 20 MHz) bands and delivered to a Cobham Aeroflex TM500 mobile device. This is the third world-first capability milestone that Telstra and Ericsson have achieved together this year, following 450 Mbps in February and 600 Mbps in September 2015.
Downlink speeds in excess of 950 Mbps were achieved with a UDP(User Datagram Protocol) speed test application by aggregating 100 MHz of spectrum across Telstra’s spectrum holdings, said Ericsson. Both companies have also been able to achieve download speeds of over 843 Mbps end to end over the Internet to the speedtest.net site.
According to Ericsson, reaching speeds of 1 Gbps was an original goal of the LTE standard, making this demonstration a key milestone in the evolution of LTE-Advanced.
Mike Wright, Telstra Group Managing Director, Networks
The demonstration of 1 Gbps end to end capability shows the advanced state of these standards and our ability to rapidly bring them into commercial service in order to deliver increased capacity in our network to meet growing demand.
Per Narvinger, Head of LTE, Ericsson
With the high pace of innovation in the device and application industry, users increasingly expect high-performance coverage and the ability to use their apps anytime, anywhere.
