MegaFon said its 5G trial achieved internet speeds of more than 1 Gbps
Russian mobile operator MegaFon demonstrated mobile internet speeds of more than 1 Gbps during the St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).
The test used Huawei network equipment and a prototype user device based on the Qualcomm Snapdragon X16 LTE modem. MegaFon said that the peak data download speed was 1.06 Gbps.
The Chinese vendor provided the Huawei DBS3900 base station, the AAU3961 active antenna units, the signal processors and software for the trial.
MegaFon aggregated two blocks of 20 megahertz in its 2.6 GHz band with one block of 20 megahertz in the 1800 MHz band. It also used 256QAM modulation and 4×4 MIMO.
“The new 5G standard will make mobile even more affordable. Subscribers will get a lot more services for less money,” MegaFon’s Acting CEO Sergey Soldatenkov said.
“Our company was the first in Russia to launch a 3G mobile network in 2008 and an LTE network in 2012. 5G is the next stage in mobile technology and offers a radically new level of service and capabilities for our customers.”
MegaFon and Huawei have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to trial 5G network services at the Fifa World Cup 2018.
MegaFon commercially launched 4G LTE services in Russia in April 2012. The telco currently offers LTE connectivity through spectrum in the 800 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2.6 GHz bands. MegaFon has recently tested LTE-A technology.
Proximus to carry out pilot combining LTE with fixed DSL
In other EMEA news, Belgian mobile operator Proximus announced a partnership with compatriot start-up Tessares to carry out a pilot project which will trial a combined fixed DSL connection and LTE mobile signal to improve broadband speeds for end users.
Proximus confirmed the pilot project will be implemented in the municipality of Frasnes-Lez-Anvaing.
The trial is based on Multipath TCP (MPTCP) technology which allows the simultaneous use of multiple paths between peers. “This open-source-based technology has been enhanced with path management, giving an operator the agility and programmability to enable intelligent traffic routing for optimized usage of xDSL and LTE assets,” Tesseres’ CEO Denis Périquet said. The executive said that several operators from Europe, Asia Pacific and Americas have expressed interests in the new technology.
Tests will start among the first customers in July 2016 and will continue for several months. At the end of this first phase, Proximus will assess whether it will be appropriate to deploy this technology on a larger scale.
