Trials Demonstrate Viability of 1800MHz Spectrum

  • Testing took place of six months
  • Hit download speeds in excess of 149Mbps
  • Upload speeds of 59Mbps

Telstra and Huawei have demonstrated downlink speeds of 149.4Mbps during trials of LTE (Long Term Evolution) mobile technology using 1800MHz spectrum.

With trials taking place over the past six months in Box Hill, Melbourne, Telstra and Huawei tested the next-generation mobile technology in both controlled and field environments with peak uplink and downlink speeds more than tripling the throughputs seen on current mobile technology.

“The significance of the trial … is that it allowed Telstra to test the performance of LTE at 1800MHz and we were able to test the limits of the technology and explore its performance against a number of criteria,” said Telstra executive director Networks and Access Technologies, Mike Wright. “As a technology, LTE has some unique characteristics that result in improved radio network capability and efficiency such as improved capacity and speed.”

Telstra and Huawei undertook two sets of tests – one in a controlled lab environment using 20MHz of bandwidth in the 1800MHz band, and a second set in the field using 10MHz of spectrum also in the 1800MHz band. Controlled tests using 20MHz of spectrum achieved peak downlink speeds of 149.4Mbps and peak uplink speeds of 59Mbps, while field trials using 10MHz of spectrum demonstrated peak downlink speeds of 69.3Mbps and peak uplink speeds of 24Mbps.

“These trials not only showed the impressive speeds made possible by LTE, but also the demonstrated the viability of using 1800MHz spectrum to deliver LTE in coming years,” said Huawei CTO Peter Rossi. “As mobile customers move away from 2G services and onto 3G and LTE, 1800MHz spectrum will increasingly become available to be re-farmed by operators. These trials shows that 1800MHz can be an attractive option for deploying LTE where access to other spectrum bands is constrained.”

Huawei provided a self-contained 1800MHz LTE-SAE (System Architecture Evolution) network and facilities, including a small number of base station sites in the Box Hill area, as well as test terminals and IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) test servers for VoD (video on demand) and broadband data testing.

The trial allowed Telstra to test LTE technology against a number of criteria, such as:

  • Capacity and coverage of LTE with various radio unit configurations
  • Performance of MIMO (Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output) with various antenna configurations – Interference management and its performance in a live LTE environment
  • Cell handover performance
  • Propagation performance
  • Latency Performance
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