Telstra LTE trial: 100 Mbps wireless over 75km cell

Telstra's LTE trial, which pitches three of the world's largest networking companies against each other in a proof-of-concept for a next generation data network, has racked up some impressive results,  pushing a 100 Mbps wireless downlink to the edges of a 75 kilometre cell.

Linked gallery: Telstra and Nokia Siemens LTE trial in regional Victoria

Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), vying for Telstra business against Next G incumbent Ericsson and Chinese manufacturer Huawei, impressed Telstra with a trial of a mobile cell based between Mount Hope and Mount Burrumboot in central Victoria.

Engineers from NSN and Telstra achieved a peak downlink throughput of 100 Mbps (average of 88.1 Mbps) and a peak uplink throughput of 30.99 Mbps (average of 29.6 Mbps). The trial used 20MHz of the 2.6 GHz mobile spectrum and 2x2 MIMO multiple antennae technology.

Michael Rocca, chief operations officer at Telstra, said range testing is critical for the future of this technology in regional Australia.

The trial used NSN's Flexi Multiradio Base Station and Evolved Packet Core (EPC), with pre-commercial LTE USB dongles from third-party vendors.

Telstra continues to test LTE solutions with Ericsson and Huawei.