Mobile World: 1 gigabit download link achieved

With consumers demanding faster access to the Internet through mobile broadband, phone vendors and service providers are under constant pressure to keep their consumers happy. Using Multi-Carrier technology combined with Multiple-Input-Output (MIMO) technology, Ericsson has demonstrated that speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second are reachable. However, just how long it will take before South African’s can take advantage of these speeds is anyone’s guess.

At the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Ericsson set a world record by showcasing LTE/4G with a speed of 1 gigabit per second in the downlink.

Johan Wibergh, head of Networks and Executive Vice President, said: “We envision 50 billion connected devices by 2020. Every device and every situation that benefits from a connection should have one. Patients will remotely connect to hospitals: students from rural areas will connect to universities anywhere in the world: rescue workers will send live videos from disaster areas for efficient response.””

Johan Wibergh continued: “”The use of mobile broadband is growing quickly, driven by consumers powered with smartphones and connected laptops. With the combination of our technology leadership and services capabilities, we are equipped to support our customers in building networks that manage the increased usage while providing consumers with the best experience.

To date, Ericsson has signed commercial LTE contracts with five major global operators: AT&T in the US, Verizon in the US, TeliaSonera in Norway and Sweden, MetroPCS in the US and DoCoMo in Japan.

This world first demonstration is utilising Multi-Carrier technology and Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output (MIMO), and runs on Ericsson commercial LTE hardware. By combining these technologies, speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second are possible. The demonstration uses four carriers of 20MHz each, totalling 80MHz and 4×4 MIMO, data is sent over the air-interface on four independent bit-streams.

LTE, the next generation of mobile communication technology, enables the fast transfer of huge amounts of data in an efficient and cost-effective way, optimising the use of the frequency spectrum. With increased speed and decreased latency, consumers can enjoy a wide range of applications (real-time web, online gaming, social media collaboration and video conferencing) effortlessly and while on the move. LTE will meet the demands of new and enhanced mobile Internet applications of the future.

“