Telstra announced that its recent trails of its LTE advanced (LTE-A) carrier aggregation network as hit peak speeds of around three times faster than the 4G mobile broadband speed currently available.
Telstra claimed that the test combining frequencies on the 1800MHz and 2600MHz bands, has achieved speeds of 450Mbps, around 150Mbps faster than the speed recorded during the last carrier aggregation test in December.
This is reportedly the first time in the world that around 450Mbps speeds on LTE-A network have been achieved in trails aggregating three data channels.
“This test allows us to see how the technology works ahead of when we make a future investment in it. Conducting this type of test is a significant step in the network engineering and development process,” said Mike Wright, group managing director Telstra Network.
“It is essential for us to see how this type of technology works in the live network and understand what needs to be done to continue to absorb the exploding demand in mobile broadband and offer an exceptional customer experience.”
In partnership with Ericsson, the company installed equipment for two new 20MHz 4G FDD channels on the 2600MHz band and aggregated the channels with the existing 20MHz channels on 1800MHz band. Telstra confirmed that the speeds achieved in trail can vary from the actual speeds, which will be lower in real-life conditions.
The tests were carried out with an advanced prototype Cat 9 engineering device capable of combining the three channels. Telstra also noted that there are still a few years before the commercial deployment of such speeds.
