T-Mobile US has achieved 1.3 Gbps download speed using Nokia AirScale small cell solutions with Licensed Assisted Access (LAA).

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Neville Ray, chief technology officer at T-Mobile, said: “We are working to deploy small cells that support LAA and build on the LTE-Advanced features we’ve deployed across the country, laying a foundation for 5G.”

T-Mobile is accelerating its investment in LAA and five carrier aggregation to give higher speeds and greater network performance to its customers. T-Mobile is the third largest wireless operator in the U.S.

During the test in its lab in Bellevue, Washington, T-Mobile used Nokia AirScale Micro RRH connected to an AirScale system module. T-Mobile achieved speeds of 1.3 Gbps by aggregating LTE carriers in licensed and unlicensed bands using five-component carrier aggregation, 256QAM, 4×4 MIMO and LAA on 14 antenna layers.

Marc Rouanne, president of Mobile Networks at Nokia, said: “Nokia is providing a path towards 5G that allows operators like T-Mobile to attain gigabit speeds with LTE by leveraging all available licensed and unlicensed spectrum.”

T-Mobile with LAA gains higher download peak rates than with licensed spectrum alone. This adds capacity beyond the spectrum licensed to T-Mobile, and the existing network sites are used with limited TCO investment.