Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) and Deutsche Telekom's Slovak Telecom business unit achieved data speeds of 300 Mbps in over-the-air field trials for intraband contiguous LTE carrier aggregation. The trials were the first for LTE Band 7, 2.6 GHz spectrum, using a 20+20 MHz configuration in a field environment, Ericsson said.
The demo was located at Bratislava Magio Beach, Slovakia, and used infrastructure from Ericsson and a terminal with a prototype chip from Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM). "Networks with 300 Mbps speeds have been publicly tested, but in Bratislava it was the first time ever in the world that intraband 300 Mbps was tested," Ericsson said.
Carrier aggregation enables network operators to combine two or more carriers into a single channel to make more efficient use of spectrum and offer higher data speeds to users. It is the best known capability offered by LTE Advanced capabilities, though far from the only one. Other LTE-A techniques include self-optimizing network (SON) capabilities, advanced MIMO, enhanced intercell interference coordination (eICIC) and coordinated multipoint (CoMP) transmission.
Ericsson is the sole supplier for Slovak Telekom's 2G and 3G radio access network and circuit-switched core and began providing the operator with LTE gear in 2013. The Sweden-based vendor is also providing IMS and managed services for Slovak Telecom's fixed network.
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