T-Mobile, Ericsson achieve 1.1 Gbps speed on unlicensed spectrum

Ericsson Booth (mhealthinsight.com)

T-Mobile, in partnership with Ericsson, has achieved a new milestone by delivering speeds of 1.1 Gbps using 12-layer Licensed Assisted Access (LAA) technology.

The feat is significant because it marks the first in the world to hit speeds beyond the 1 Gbps threshold on unlicensed spectrum.

The LAA technology builds upon T-Mobile deployments of 4×4 MIMO and 256 QAM and will give customers even greater access to near gigabit speeds in 2018.

The demo took place at T-Mobile’s Bellevue, Washington lab using Ericsson Radio System and the TM500 network test equipment from Cobham Wireless.

For the trial, the companies used several LTE technologies including 256 QAM, 4×4 MIMO, and LAA by aggregating two licensed carriers and three unlicensed carriers.

The use of these LTE technologies on unlicensed spectrum complements licensed spectrum and makes it possible for a larger number of operators to reach gigabit speeds in their networks, Ericsson said.

LAA has been demonstrated previously on 10 layers, reaching download speeds of up to 1 Gbps. Extending to 12 layers enables speeds exceeding 1 Gbps. With this technology, the unlicensed carriers on these radios can be aggregated with licensed carriers on the micro cells or on nearby macro cells.

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