SK Telecom, Ericsson and Qualcomm successfully demonstrate LTE-Advanced Tri-Band Carrier Aggregation on Commercial Network.

• Speeds of up to 300 Mbps achieved with LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) Tri-Band Carrier Aggregation, using three separate and discrete bands
• Technical achievement enables operators to implement performance improvements across the LTE coverage area

Ericsson, SK Telecom and Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., successfully demonstrated live LTE-Advanced Tri-Band Carrier aggregation in SK Telecom’s commercial network, achieving downlink speeds of up to 300 Mbps. The demonstration combined three separate bands of 10 MHz, 10 MHz and 20 MHz bandwidth.

Carrier Aggregation is a key component of LTE-Advanced, a technology evolution step from the current LTE networks. It enables operators to deliver even higher performance mobile data services based on ever-increasing customer needs. Carrier aggregation provides higher speeds across the LTE coverage area and is being deployed globally.

Park Jin-hyo, Senior Vice President and Head of Network R&D Center, SK Telecom, says: “SK Telecom is pleased to successfully demonstrate Tri-Band Carrier Aggregation on its commercial network and thereby confirm the company's system readiness for commercialization of the technology. SK Telecom believes the demonstration will serve as yet another opportunity for the company to solidify its position as a leader in LTE-Advanced.”

Tri-band Carrier Aggregation enables operators who have available spectrum in three separate bands to aggregate this spectrum together to enable higher data download speeds and improved app coverage.

Per Narvinger, Head of Product Line LTE, Ericsson, says: "Customer demand for better app coverage means constantly looking for innovative ways to increase network performance. We are pleased to work with SK Telecom and Qualcomm Technologies in the delivery of new LTE-Advanced capabilities.”

Serge Willenegger, Vice President of Product Management, Qualcomm Technologies, says: “We are pleased to collaborate with SK Telecom and Ericsson and use our Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ processor with integrated Gobi™ modem into achieving another industry milestone to help open the doors in the global adoption of Cat6.”

LTE-Advanced is the continuing evolution of 3GPP standards and defines new LTE capabilities for global operator deployment.

Ericsson is the market leader in LTE network technology. Today, 50 percent of the world's LTE smartphone traffic is served by Ericsson networks, which is more than double the traffic of our closest competitor.

Ericsson also powers the two world's first commercially launched LTE Advanced Carrier Aggregation networks in South Korea. More than 190 LTE RAN and Evolved Packet Core networks have been delivered worldwide, of which more than 130 have gone live commercially.

Ericsson is present today in all high-traffic LTE markets including the US, Japan, South Korea, Australia and Canada, and has been selected by all of the top 10 LTE operators as ranked by LTE subscriptions worldwide. Ericsson expects to hold 25 percent of all essential patents in LTE, both for TDD and FDD mode, and supports common hardware and software for FDD and TDD systems, giving operators maximum flexibility in their FDD and TDD deployment.

News Source: Ericsson
Web Site: http://www.ericsson.com/