The telco aims to expand the new technology to other cities in Denmark this year
Danish mobile telephony operator TeliaSonera kicked off a test of LTE-Advanced technology in the country’s capital of Copenhagen. The telco plans to expand the LTE-A trial to other cities across the country during the coming months.
TeliaSonera is currently testing carrier aggregation with spectrum in both the 1800 MHz and 2600 MHz bands. The carrier said the LTE-A network supports peak download speeds up to 300 megabits per second compared to 150 Mbps offered by LTE technology. The trial currently includes one base transceiver station in Copenhagen, with plans to expand the technology to more sites before the end of the year once the initial LTE-A trial is completed.
Last month, rival operator TDC started to deploy LTE-A carrier aggregation technology across its network in Denmark, with its LTE-A technology initially deployed on 500 mobile sites in Copenhagen, Aarhus, Aalborg, Esbjerg, Holstebro, Næstved, Odense, Slagelse and Viborg.
In Denmark, TeliaSonera ended the second quarter of the year with 1.62 million subscriber, an increase of 4.3% compared to the year-ago quarter. Net additions in the quarter totaled 18,000 new connections. The telco also provides fixed telephony, broadband and pay-TV services.
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Danish operations represented approximately 5.3% of TeliaSonera’s overall revenue in Q2. The telco has operations in Europe and Asia.
In June 2011, Danish mobile operators TeliaSonera and Telenor signed an agreement to share their mobile networks in the country. The telcos created a joint venture called TT-Netvaerket to operate the shared infrastructure. The two firms completed the integration of their 3G and LTE networks last year. TT-Netvaerket is planning to deploy 600 LTE-enabled base stations this year, while also introducing new technologies, including voice over LTE.
Austria to free up mobile spectrum in the 700 MHz band
In other EMEA news, the Austrian government expects to free up spectrum in the 700 MHz band (694 MHz-790 MHz) for mobile telephony services by 2020, according to a statement by the country’s Federal Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology. The Austrian authorities said the move will strengthen broadband penetration in Austria.
The 700 MHz band was auctioned in Germany in May, while France’s telecom regulator Arcep recently launched the process to award spectrum in the 700 MHz band.