Optus network sites hit 2.32Gbps in tests

Telco sets speed record at Gigasites

Optus this morning claimed it had achieved record speeds at two mobile network test sites. The telco said it managed to reach 2.32 gigabits second at the sites in St Marys in Sydney’s west and in the Newcastle suburb of Lambton in Newcastle.

The 'Gigasites' sites were built by Nokia Solutions and Networks and Huawei. The two sites are connected to Optus' live mobile network and for the capacity test 58 smartphones and mobile broadband modems were used to flood them with traffic.

In addition to setting throughput records, Optus claims that the Gigasites break records for the amount of spectrum on a live network site: Multiple spectrum layers are available at the two sites, including 700MHz, 900MHz, 1800MHz, 2100MHz, 2300MHz and 2600MHz (one of the sites has 3500MHz as well).

The telco's engineers managed to reach 2.32Gbps by utilising seven spectrum bands at one site; on the site that supports six spectrum bands the peak speed was 1.65Gbps. The peak speed for a single spectrum band was 1.11Gbps over 2300MHz (using LTE TDD).

"Our Gigasite project is about demonstrating our network of the future, and how Optus will be able to provide our customers with unparalleled capacity to meet their ever increasing appetite for data, and deliver a faster, more consistent network experience," the telco's vice-president of mobile engineering, Andrew Smith, said in a statement.

Smith said the tests represented the first Australian trial of LTE on the 3500MHz band.

"In the coming months, we'll explore how the 3500MHz spectrum could be used in a future mobile network," Smith said. "This trial will provide important data which will help inform our decision making for the 3500MHz spectrum band."

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