Telstra announced the world’s first commercial Gigabit LTE network in Sydney — in association with Ericsson, Qualcomm and NETGEAR.

Gigabit LTE, a key step towards 5G, delivers a peak physical layer download speed of ~979Mbps and uplink 2 CA delivers a peak uplink physical layer speed of ~150Mbps with the support of Cat16 device.

Telstra said its Gigabit LTE service is available in select state capital city CBDs. Telstra network will be supporting consumers’ Gigabit LTE NETGEAR device, Nighthawk M1, in Australia in late February, 2017.

In addition to Gigabit LTE speeds on the downlink, Telstra’s network capability delivers up to double the previous uplink speeds.

Telstra was the first globally to launch 600Mbps download speeds in September 2015.

On the uplink, Telstra’s new network capability uses 64QAM and 2CA (Two Carrier Aggregation) for a peak upload speed of up to 150Mbps. These new features and capabilities are all important steps as Telstra evolves its network towards 5G.

The utilization of 4×4 MIMO within new NETGEAR Nighthawk M1 Mobile Router (MR1100) Gigabit device, equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon X16 LTE modem, allows 4-way receive diversity. The 4-way receive diversity capability works to support improved data throughput throughout all areas of the LTE network including both the Gigabit enabled areas and as well as the other remaining LTE network areas.

“As the roll out of Gigabit LTE continues, our customers with a Gigabit capable device can enjoy a faster mobile experience for both downloads and uploads,” said Mike Wright, group managing director, Networks, Telstra.

Per Narvinger, vice president Network Systems, Ericsson; Mike Finley, president of Qualcomm North America; and Andrew Green, VP of Mobile Network Products, NETGEAR, were instrumental in achieving the new milestone.

Ericsson is ranked first for handling the most global LTE traffic. Ericsson networks carry forty percent of the world’s total mobile traffic. Ericsson has supplied more than 270 LTE RAN and Evolved Packet Core networks and 200 are live commercially.