AT&T said that it has rolled out LTE-License Assisted Access (LTE-LAA) in parts of Indianapolis and will expand the LTE-LAA rollout to additional parts of the city by the end of the year. The technology boasts theoretical speeds of 1 Gbps and, according to the company, has reached a peak of 979 Mbps in a San Francisco trial.
“Demand continues to grow at a rapid pace on our network,” the Bill Soards, President AT&T Indiana in a press release. That’s why offering customers the latest technologies and increased wireless capacity by combining licensed and unlicensed spectrum is an important milestone.”
AT&T LTE-LAA Rollout
LTE-LAA and similar technologies represent an important step for cellular companies. Until now, cellular carriers used licensed spectrum. This spectrum is expensive but offers the big advantage of being exclusively used by the company paying the bill. Spectrum used by LTE-LAA is unlicensed.
Customers with the Samsung Galaxy Note8 can take advantage of LTE-LAA, the carrier said.
Earlier this week, AT&T said that it is bringing its 5G Evolution program to Minneapolis. The initiative – which aims to provide networks with the capability to support 5G when it is ready – already is in use in parts of Indianapolis and Austin. It features LTE Advanced features such as 2356 QAM, 4×4 MIMO and 3-way carrier aggregation.
AT&T says that it invested $350 million in its wired and wireless network infrastructure in Indianapolis between 2014 and 2016.
Image courtesy of flickr user Stefano Brivio.
