LG U+ confirmed on the 23rd that it conducted a demonstration of giga LTE, successfully achieving up to speeds of 1.2 Gbps using LTE only. The company is planning to launch giga LTE service around the same time giga LTE-capable devices arrive in the market. 

Theoretically, at speeds of 1.2 Gbps, you can download a HD movie (of about 1.4 GB) in just 9 seconds, an UHD movie (of about 18 GB) in just 2 minutes, or 30 digital songs (about 5 MB each) at a single second. Once the giga LTE service begins, a variety of large-volume content, such as autonomous driving, virtual reality (VR), mobile UHD, etc., will become reality.

At the demonstration, LG U+ combined i) 'Downlink 256 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM)’ that boosts LTE speeds by over 30%, and ii) ‘4X4 Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO)’ that enhances speeds by up to double-fold, and applied the combined technology to the operator's current LTE network, achieving up to 780 Mbps of speeds. So far, in the LTE network, 64 QAM and 2x2 MIMO have been used, supporting up to 300 Mbps by means of 3-band CA (of 40 MHz in total).  

In addition, the company, hoping to obtain more LTE spectrum soon, demonstrated CA of 4 LTE bands, and proved over 1 Gbps can be achieved using LTE bands only, without having to combine with WiFi bands. In the current LTE network, giga speeds have been only possible through aggregating 3-band LTE and giga WiFi bands.   

LG U+ plans to launch giga LTE service around the same time when giga LTE-capable devices, which feature 'Downlink 256 QAM' and

'4X4 MIMO', and thus support 780+ Mbps, arrive in the market.

The company, now with only 40 MHz, cannot support giga speeds even when these giga LTE-capable devices become available. It appears to plan to get more frequency at an auction scheduled early next year. With the additional frequency in existing or new bands, the company will be able to offer 1 Gbps by means of 4-band CA in LTE only. 

Back in May, LG U+ also succeeded in demonstration of LTE in Unlicensed spectrum (LTE-U), which combines 5.8 GHz unlicensed band with LTE bands, in its commercial network. So, the company might want frequency in unlicensed spectrum, rather than in licensed spectrum. The decision whether to get unlicensed will be made depending on how the government's policies on 5 GHz band will be finalized. 

Once giga LTE service begins, LG U+ will move on to next step - development of a next generation mobile network capable of supporting 2 Gbps through combining giga LTE and giga WiFi.