Australia's Telstra has announced the first commercial deployment of LTE-Broadcast (LTE-B) in the nation, conducted in partnership with Ericsson and Samsung.
The deployment is initially being used to support high-definition streaming over Telstra's AFL (Australian Football League) Live Official App.
During a live demonstration of the technology in Sydney last week, over 100 LTE-B compatible Samsung smartphones were on display simultaneously streaming HD content over the app using LTE-B.
A second batch of devices delivering the content over conventional unicast was used to demonstrate how conventional networks can be saturated with demand leading to lower quality and stalling of content.
Telstra group MD of networks Mike Wright said with the company's AFL and other sport streaming apps, the company is now delivering some 37 million minutes of live content each weekend to a user base of around 1.2 million devices.
“One of the biggest challenges for mobile network operators around the world is how to manage the ever growing demand for data and video,” he said.
“LTE-B is key part of the solution – not only does it improve network efficiency, but more importantly improves the customer experience by delivering an enhanced streaming experience...video streaming is transforming the way we consume entertainment, including how we watch sport. ”