New Airtel and Ericsson Achieve 500Mbps Download Speed on LTE Network During LAA Tests

Bharti Airtel in partnership with the Swedish manufacturer, Ericsson, ran the first tests in India for Licensed Assisted Access(LAA) technology. The LAA technology massively increases capacity and speeds on the LTE network by the combination of licensed and unlicensed spectrum. Both the companies announced that they successfully concluded the tests for Licensed Assisted Access (LAA) technology over a LIVE LTE network and as part of that the trial achieved download speeds of over 500Mbps.

LAA Combinedly Uses Unlicensed and Licensed Spectrum

In the run-up of the telcos to achieve Gigabit level speeds on the LTE network, LAA can be deemed as a breakthrough since the technology enables the LTE network to reach the levels of data transmission speed which were previously only possible through fibre optic. Also, the technology makes use of the previously untapped resource of unlicensed spectrum. This technology uses the 5 GHz band of the unlicensed spectrum along with the licensed range. The result being ultra-fast speeds for subscribers and better resource management for the operators.

In the trails which were conducted in the Delhi NCR region, some of the phones showed a peak download speed of 500Mbps on the indoors, whereas the peak download speed in the outdoors was pegged at 400Mbps. The tests also established the coverage to be in a 180-metre radius of the base station.

LAA to Bring Unprecedented Improvements in LTE Download Speeds

In the LAA testing, Bharti Airtel deployed an LTE 5MHz spectrum in combination with 20 MHz carriers of unlicensed spectrum. The telecom operator also used 4CC carrier aggregation, 4×4 MIMO and 256 QAM technologies and deployed Ericsson Radio System for testing.

Chief Technology Officer of Airtel, Randeep Sekhon, spoke about the tests, “Airtel has always led the introduction of cutting-edge network technologies to serve its customers. We are pleased to partner Ericsson to conduct India’s first LAA trial, which is also a big step towards 5G and Gigabit networks. LAA is an important technology evolution that can truly unlock the power of 4G LTE networks by leveraging unutilized unlicensed spectrum.”

Nitin Bansal, Head of Network Solutions, Southeast Asia, Oceania also commented on this new development, “LAA is a key evolution of mobile technology, and we are pleased to be partnering with Airtel to demonstrate the increased capacity, improved speeds and enhanced user experience through the combination of licensed and unlicensed spectrum.”