Korean telecom operator SK Telecom announced plans to weave in additional spectrum holdings into its LTE network to speed up network speeds using wider link channels.
The carrier said the addition of 35 megahertz of spectrum in the 1.8 GHz band will allow it to provide 20 megahertz downlink and 15 megahertz uplink channels to support speeds of up to 150 megabits per second. Those speeds would be attainable to customers with LTE-Advanced compatible devices, while customers with legacy LTE devices would be limited to theoretical network speeds of up to 100 Mbps. The higher-speed service is expected to be launched in parts of Seoul by the end of the year, with nationwide coverage by mid-2014.
SK Telecom also said it plans to further tap into the carrier aggregation capabilities of LTE-Advanced to combine the newly acquired 1.8 GHz spectrum with its 800 MHz spectrum holdings to bolster network speeds up to 225 Mbps by next year. The carrier has already begun the carrier aggregation process, announcing earlier this year the move to combine 20 megahertz of spectrum in the 1.8 GHz band with 20 megahertz in the 800 MHz band across 84 markets. Those plans will also see the carrier install LTE-A on 32,000 cell sites by the end of the year.
A report released this week by Signals Research Group found average downlink speeds of 62 Mbps and peak speeds of 141 Mbps via an LTE-A network in Seoul.
Domestic carriers are still looking warily at LTE-A, with Verizon Wireless’ chief network officer Nicola Palmer recently noting that the technology was currently surrounded with more hype than practicality, and that the carrier would look at deploying some of those upgrades where and when it made sense.
Verizon Wireless has recently begun to add support for its 700 MHz-based LTE network using its 1.7/2.1 GHz spectrum holdings in order to add capacity in some markets. That initial deployment will rely on a soft handoff between the different spectrum bands whenever a customer moves between coverage areas. These sort of hand offs have in the past required a data session be re-established on the new spectrum, something that is not acceptable as carriers looking to deploy voice over LTE services, which Verizon Wireless has said it plans to do beginning next year.
“We don’t anticipate any issues with that,” Mike Haberman, VP of network support at Verizon Wireless, recently told RCR Wireless News. “We have done a lot of testing.”
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