14 DAY TRIAL // It seems that the higher data transfer speeds of the LTE are not enough anymore, as Ericsson has just demoed the LTE Advanced technology, the next step of the 4G standard.
Amazing, to say the least, but during the demonstration, which was held in Kista, Sweden, Ericsson managed to attain speeds more than 10 times faster than those currently experienced by LTE customers in the country.
According to Ericsson, the system is based on commercial hardware and was operating on a test frequency provided by the PTS.
LTE Advanced is capable of further enhancing the speed and capacity of the LTE standard and is expected to become commercially available in 2013. In addition, the technology is compliant with the 3GPP Release 10 global standard.
“Sweden is in the forefront when it comes to usage of mobile broadband. Sweden was both early with licensing of harmonized spectrum in the 2.6GHz and 800MHz bands, and the first country in the world where LTE was commercially deployed. The demonstration today indicates that mobile broadband technologies continue to evolve rapidly,” said Mr. Urban Landmark, head of Spectrum Department of Swedish regulator PTS.
During the demonstration, Ericsson used its own multi-mode, multi-standard radio base station, RBS 6000.
Furthermore, the live traffic was streamed between the RBS and a moving van from which network performance could be monitored.
In the demonstration, 60MHz of aggregated bandwidth was used, compared to the 20MHz maximum that is currently possible using LTE.
“The next step of LTE enhances the current service offering, performance and data speed even further. It provides operators with the opportunity to capitalize further on their existing infrastructure,” says Ulf Ewaldsson, vice president and head of Product Area Radio, Ericsson.
Once LTE Advanced services are commercially available, end-users will be able to retrieve and send information much faster, even when the network is congested.