In what is claimed to be a world’s first – 100MHz of spectrum was aggregated across the 700MHz, 1800MHz, 2100MHz and 2600MHz bands and delivered to a Cobham Aeroflex TM500 mobile device.
"We successfully tested 1Gbps speed capability by aggregating together 100MHz of Telstra's spectrum holdings across five separate 4G channels integrated on our commercial end-to-end network," said Mike Wright, GMD of Networks. "Our end-to-end tests have been achieving amazing download speeds of over 950Mbps using a specialised speed test application.”
Telstra presently offers speeds of up to 450Mbps for mobile devices and 600Mbps for mobile hotspots in selected areas.
The five-carrier aggregation will provide the foundation for 5G, which will require the aggregation of higher frequency bands, according to Ericsson.
Per Narvinger, head of LTE at Ericsson, said: “With the high pace of innovation in the device and application industry, users increasingly expect high-performance coverage and the ability to use their apps anytime, anywhere.”
Telstra presently provides 4G network coverage to 94% of the population in Australia. Last month, it announced that it aims to roll out its 4G network to 99% of the country’s population by June 2017.