MTN and Huawei test 1Gbps LTE-U service
MTN South Africa said it has achieved the fastest indoor mobile data service in South Africa using LTE-Advanced and LTE-Unlicensed technology.
The service is able to provide data speeds of up to 1Gbps, which MTN said is the first Gigabit per second speed ever recorded in South Africa using a mobile broadband connection.
MTN said its 1Gbps system uses Huawei’s latest small cell Lampsite product, which aggregates two unlicensed LTE 5GHz carriers (40MHz) with one licensed LTE 2,100MHz carrier (15MHz).
LTE-Unlicensed technology operates in the 5GHz unlicensed band, and is ideal for in-building deployments.
“MTN has been upgrading base stations and our fibre optic transmission network in preparation for this launch,” said MTN acting CTO Krishna Chetty.
“It’s great to claim another South African first for MTN with the trial towards building a 4.5G network,” said Chetty.
It should be noted that there are currently no commercially-available devices which support LTE-U.
Mobile operators expect devices which incorporate LTE-U to launch before the middle of 2016.
More on LTE-U
Cell C achieves 600Mbps in LTE-U test
Blazingly-fast 200Mbps on Vodacom LTE-U
MTN hits 200Mbps download speeds in LTE-Unlicensed trial
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