Telstra puts more LTE-Advanced trials on roadmap

Telstra will conduct a fresh round of trials of LTE carrier aggregation technology this financial year, combining 700 MHz and 1800 MHz spectrum assets to see if theoretical speeds of 300 Mbps are possible.

The carrier revealed in a roadmap at its investor day in Sydney yesterday that the trial using 700 MHz spectrum would occur during the current financial year (FY14), which ends June 30, 2014.

It will be the second round of LTE-Advanced carrier aggregation technology trials conducted by Telstra, after an initial round of tests on July 31 this year that combined 900 MHz and 1800 MHz spectrum assets.

Executive director of mobile and wireline, Warwick Bray, said that Telstra would begin selling an undisclosed device that used 900+1800 LTE-Advanced carrier aggregation technology sometime this financial year, pointing to the success of the first carrier aggregation trial.

The telco has made no secret of its intention to also put carrier aggregation technology to use to combine the 700 MHz and 1800 MHz LTE bands "when we get access to 700 MHz spectrum in 2015".

The investor day roadmap shows that tests of this spectrum combination are now firmly in planning, well ahead of the release of the 'waterfront' digital dividend spectrum for next-generation mobile networks.

"We trialled carrier aggregation, which is simultaneously using two pieces of spectrum to enhance bandwidth and hence bitrate, and we'll be doing more carrier aggregation in FY14," Bray said.