Telstra has partnered with Qualcomm and Ericsson for a test on the telco’s mobile network of technology capable of delivering 2 gigabits per second downloads to end users.
The telco revealed today that it had conducted a test on its live commercial network in Toowoomba, Queensland.
The trial follows in-lab tests, details of which Telstra revealed in February.
Telstra said the performance was delivered over 100MHz of bandwidth, using five LTE carriers across three different frequency bands. Each carrier used 4x4 MIMO and 256 QAM technologies.
“We now have the commercial end-to-end network capability to deliver such world-leading LTE speeds and will now begin to deploy this technology in our mobile network to support even greater capacity and faster mobile speeds for our customers where it is needed most,” said Telstra’s executive director, network and infrastructure engineering, Channa Seneviratne.
Telstra said it would begin offering devices capable of 2Gbps speeds in early 2019. The telco will begin enabling 2Gbps speeds across its 4G network later this year.
The Toowoomba tests used Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X24 LTE modem.
“The Snapdragon X24 LTE modem is the world’s first announced 2 Gbps LTE modem and represents our latest LTE innovation in mobile technologies and is an important milestone in providing a glimpse of new experiences in the path to 5G,” said Mike Finley, senior vice president and president, Qualcomm North America and Australia.
“We are excited to collaborate with mobile technology leaders such as Ericsson and Telstra to bring these mobile innovations to consumers around the world.”
Today’s announcement follows Telstra in early 2017 launching what it said was the world’s first gigabit LTE service.
The author traveled to Telstra Vantage in Melbourne as a guest of Telstra.