Telecom network vendor Ericsson today said SingTel – using Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor — achieved 260 Mbps downlink speeds during the live demonstration of FDD / TDD Carrier Aggregation using commercial track hardware and software.

Tay Yeow Lian, managing director for Networks, SingTel, said: “We are using dual-layers of LTE FDD with LTE-Advanced Carrier Aggregation, and we know the performance of our mobile network is critical to ensuring that our customers have a great experience on their smartphones and tablets.”

“We will continue to explore the future option of bundling even TDD spectrum into the LTE carrier aggregation to expand network capacity, allowing our customers to enjoy consistent high data speed download even at high traffic areas,” Lian added.

SingTel and Ericsson conducted the demonstration at the SingTel office in Singapore on October 3, 2014, utilizing a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor, and Ericsson LTE software designed to support the company’s RBS6000 family of base stations for macro and small-cell networks.

In the demonstration, Ericsson aggregated 20 MHz of LTE FDD spectrum with 20 MHz of LTE TDD spectrum, supporting peak data rates up to 260 Mbps.

Benefits of FDD / TDD Carrier Aggregation

FDD / TDD Carrier Aggregation enables telecom operators to complement their FDD networks with a cost-efficient deployment of TDD. For operators using TDD bands, the TDD uplink coverage can be a constraint.

By combining TDD and FDD spectrum through Carrier Aggregation, low band FDD can deliver better uplink coverage while the TDD band can be leveraged for higher downlink capacity. LTE FDD / TDD Carrier Aggregation enables spectrum from both LTE FDD and LTE TDD to be combined to deliver better peak data speeds and improve app coverage across the network.

Ericsson in a statement said the TDD and FDD spectrum through Carrier Aggregation increases the effective TDD coverage area by up to 70 percent, reducing the cost of providing TDD coverage. It also ensures efficient utilization of spectrum, increasing both the combined FDD / TDD coverage area and capacity of the network.

Commercial devices supporting FDD / TDD Carrier Aggregation are expected in 2015.

Baburajan K
[email protected]