Verizon and two key vendors have sent data at 1.45 Gbps in a live test, the carrier announced yesterday. The partners in the Verizon LTE Advanced demonstration, which was conducted in New York, were Qualcomm and Nokia.
The companies used Verizon’s licensed PCS and AWS spectrum and four carriers of licensed assisted access (LAA) spectrum.
“When we first launched our LTE network, we knew there would be a lot of room for innovation and to expand its capabilities,” Bill Stone the Vice President of Technology Planning and Development for Verizon, said in a press release. “Eight years later, we continue our advancement of our 4G LTE network knowing our LTE network leadership is foundational for our evolution into 5G.”
Verizon LTE Advanced
The test used Nokia’s AirScale base station and Qualcomm Technologies’ mobile test device, which is powered by its Snapdragon X24 LTE modem. The test also used 256 QAM modulation and 4×4 MIMO antenna.
There is no specific break between 4G advanced and 5G. Many of the advances made in 4G Advanced will be vital to 5G as well. One of the keys for carriers and their ecosystems is to deploy LTE infrastructure today that is capable of transitioning to 5G as seamlessly, efficiently and inexpensively as possible when the carrier is ready to make the move.
In August 2017, Verizon, Ericsson and Qualcomm used LAA to traffic data at 953 Mbps in a real world trial in Boca Raton, FL. The trial used the Ericsson micro radio 2205 and a Snapdragon 835 mobile platform test device which leverages a gigabit LTE-capable Snapdragon X16 LTE modem.
