Australia's Telstra worked with vendors Ericsson, NETGEAR and Qualcomm Technologies to achieve 4G speeds of a record 2Gbps in a lab testing environment.
The trial involved the aggregation of five 20MHz LTE carriers across three frequency bands with each carrier using 4x4 multiple-input-multiple-output (4x4 MIMO) and 256 quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) technologies.
The 2Gbps speeds were achieved using a NETGEAR mobile router equipped with the world's first announced LTE Category 20 modem, the Qualcomm Snapdragon X24. Ericsson supplied the baseband and radio technology and its latest Gigabit LTE network software.
“With the ever-increasing demand for data and the need to provide our customers with a superior user experience, we are always striving to provide new solutions and develop advanced technologies,” Telstra group MD for networks Mike Wright said.
“Following Telstra’s world first Gigabit-enabled network launch in January 2017, we are delighted to again be partnering with Ericsson and Qualcomm to double these speeds.”
The four companies will be showcasing the solution and illustrate how it is capable of achieving 2Gbps speeds during a live demonstration at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, which commences on February 26.
“We’re pushing the boundaries of technology and providing unprecedented advances in LTE evolution by breaking the 2Gbps-barrier with our partners,” Ericsson head of network systems Joakim Sorelius added.
“This technology advancement will enable faster mobile broadband speeds and greater network capacity for all subscribers. This is important as users consume and generate greater amounts of content via video streaming and share their own pictures and video content.”