OREANDA-NEWS. China Mobile recently completed the industry’s first commercial verification of LTE TDD inter-band 3CC Carrier Aggregation (CA) using Huawei's commercial base station and Qualcomm Technologies’ commercial terminal based on the Qualcomm® Snapdragon 810 processor with X10 LTE, a product of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. is a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated. This CA verification combining one 20MHz carrier at 1.9GHz and two 20MHz carriers at 2.6GHz, achieved downlink peak rates of up to 320Mbps.

China Mobile has 1.9GHz and 2.6GHz spectrum available for LTE-A TDD outdoor coverage. Inter-band CA is of unique value for China Mobile since 1.9GHz is more suitable for coverage advantages, while 2.6GHz is better for capacity. To deploy inter-band CA, China Mobile can take full advantage of both 1.9GHz and 2.6GHz spectrums in order to enhance the user’s experience and maintain a competitive edge. Considering the fact that most of China Mobile’s 4G macro deployment is based on 1.9GHz, adding 2.6GHz carrier to the current network by using inter-band 1.9GHz + 2.6GHz CA can fully utilize existing resources to achieve a smooth evolution for improving network efficiency.

China Mobile is upgrading its current network to LTE-A by using CA. In Shenzhen, China Mobile initiated their 2CC CA scale deployment at the end of 2014. Moreover, China Mobile is also highly concerned about the innovative research and pilots related to CA. For example, Jiangsu Mobile recently completed the uplink 2CC CA field test with Huawei, which indicated an improved uplink speed by up to 180%. In another example, Shandong Mobile completed the downlink 4CC CA commercial authentication, with single user downlink peak rate reaching 400Mbps. Currently, Shanghai mobile is working on the expansion of 1.9GHz + 2.6GHz, and is planning to deploy inter-band CA in the near future.

This world’s first commercial verification of LTE TDD inter-band 3CC CA enriched CA scenarios has taken one step further towards commercialization, and therefore gives China Mobile and additional competitive advantage. From a global perspective, CA is also gaining in popularity. According to the latest GSA report, as of April 2015, 64 operators worldwide in 69 countries have deployed CA, and 116 operators conducted technical test, as well as is focusing on investment. Chipsets and terminals supporting CA are quickly reaching maturity. In addition to playing a significant role in this commercial verification, the Snapdragon 810 process with X10 LTE will also be widely used in upcoming 4G terminals, such as the LeTV smartphone in China, which supports LTE TDD 3CC inter-band CA.

Additionally, most of the latest smartphones, such as Huawei’s Mate7, Honor 6, and Honor 6 Plus and many other brands’ smartphones can support 2CC DL CA. As the ecosystem matures, so too will the comprehensive commercialization of CA in the coming future.

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