Nokia and Taiwan Mobile (TWM) announced the achievement of the world’s first New Radio Carrier Aggregation (NR CA) by combining spectrum in the 700MHz (n28) and 3500MHz (n78) bands.
The trial, which took place in a 5G standalone (SA) network environment, was performed with Nokia’s AirScale 5G SA architecture in TWM’s 5G network and combined two spectrum bands, frequency division duplex (FDD) in 700MHz (n28) and time division duplex (TDD) in 3500MHz (n78).

MediaTek, a leading chipset maker, supported the trial by providing equipment to verify network performance.

Finland-based Nokia is TWM’s sole 5G equipment supplier covering 5G RAN, 5G Core and 5G IMS including its latest AirScale Radio Access products.

“Combining SA with NR CA, our 5G user experience is raised to the next level while the utilization of our spectrum assets and 5G networks are maximized,” Tom Koh, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Technology Group, Taiwan Mobile, said.

Mark Atkinson, SVP, Radio Access Networks PLM at Nokia, said: “Aggregating spectrum is an efficient way to enable enhanced coverage and capacity. This successful trial highlights how mobile operators with similar spectrum allocation can achieve similar results.”