KT, one of South Korea's leading operators, and Nokia recently conducted the industry's first eMTC field trial.
eMTC, which is also referred to as LTE-M with 1.4MHz bandwidth is a feature that will be fully standardized with 3GPP Release 13, the first evolution step of LTE-Advanced to LTE-Advanced Pro. eMTC will provide data rates of up to 1Mbps and up to four times better coverage, while reducing device complexity by up to 80%, in comparison to conventional LTE, according to Nokia.
The trial was conducted on KT's LTE network using Nokia's Flexi Multiradio 10 Base Station wherein eMTC utilized only 1.4MHz of the full 20 MHz LTE system, leaving the remaining spectrum free for normal LTE traffic. The trial marks an important milestone for the Internet of Things, allowing for coexistence with the existing LTE network as well as providing extended coverage, said Nokia.
Chang Seok Seo, Senior Vice President and Head of Network Strategy Unit, KT
This trial, a world-first, offers a solid platform to promote the widespread application of services powered by IoT technology by addressing limitations that are hampering its spread and reach.
Andrew Cope, Head of Korea, Nokia
With this trial, we have successfully demonstrated the capabilities of LTE as a veritable backbone for a growing range of IoT use cases.
