Nokia Siemens and Qualcomm have demonstrated new HSPA+ technology allowing devices to share cell sites to improve data speeds.
The vendors will use next week's Mobile World Congress to show off HSPA+ Multiflow operating on commercial infrastructure equipment.
The technology is designed to allow devices at the edge of a base station's cell to connect to another nearby cell. Data is then transmitted simultaneously from both cells, effectively doubling throughput to the device.
NSN claims the technique will also allow operators to reduce network strain by addressing common imbalances in network resource usage.
Announcing the demonstration, Nokia Siemens said it expects HSPA+ Multiflow to be standardized by the 3GPP by mid-2012.
Nokia Siemens separately claimed to have deployed the first commercial small cell network using advanced wireless services (AWS) spectrum.
The infrastructure vendor supplied its 3GPP release 9-compliant femtocell set up to US carrier Mosaic Telecom, which covers rural areas in the state of Wisconsin. NSN claims the solution is the first real-world deployment of femtocells using AWS spectrum, which covers the 1710-MHz to 1755-MHz and 2110-MHz to 2155-MHz bands.
Mosaic chief Rick Vergin says using femtocells “will greatly reduce our capital and operating expenditures due to the reduced load on our macro network.” The approach is also well suited to the operator’s rural footprint, Vergin notes.
The AWS femtocell agreement is the second between Mosaic and NSN, following a contract to replace the operator’s WiMax infrastructure with LTE equipment in 2011.