Credit: Sprint Corp.S , the U.S. national wireless carrier, and Nokia Corp. NOK , a leading telecom infrastructure developer, recently promoted its three-channel carrier aggregation in the Kansas City's LTE Plus Network. It was followed by a live telecast at Kauffman Stadium in Kansasa City and at Soldier Field in Chicago. The three-channel carrier aggregation was advertised using the latest network technology devices -- the Samsung Galaxy Note7, Galaxy S7, S7 edge, HTC 10 and LG G5, each having Internet download speed of more than 230 Mbps (Mega Bits Per Second).
Sprint has expanded the three-channel carrier aggregation on more than 500 cell sites in Chicago. The promotion was followed by a live telecast of high-definition 4K video where attendants were also able to experience a low-latency with high-speed.
What is Carrier Aggregation?
Carrier aggregation is an LTE-Advanced feature which connects multiple bands of spectrum in order to generate broader channels, increase the bandwidth capability and hence function speedily on the respective devices. In general, it enables excess data transfer quickly via a much higher bandwidth.
Sprint's Advancements in Carrier Aggregation
In 2015, Sprint started its journey to the roll-out of two-channel aggregation. This two-channel carrier aggregation now runs at a speed of more than 100 Mbps in 237 LTE, and in markets all over the country using 40 MHz of 2.5 GHz spectrum on the company's LTE Plus cell sites.
For the three-channel carrier aggregation, Sprint intends to use 60 MHz of spectrum in the 2.5 GHz band in order to deliver download speeds exceeding 200 Mbps on compatible devices. Sprint already has an existing presence of 160 MHz of 2.5 GHz spectrum in the top 100 U.S. markets. Sprint also uses 800 MHz and 1.9 GHz spectrum to provide strong coverage and reliability across its LTE Plus network. Moreover, Sprint provides 23 such devices that run on its carrier aggregation LTE Plus Network.
Further, Sprint claims that Kansas City being their hometown, and one of the technologically upgraded cities, is best suited to be their first promotional market for this advancement in technology. It is expected that this three-channel carrier aggregation should increase the end user throughput and stabilize Sprint's network load on three carriers for better use of the spectrum. Additionally, it offers a great experience at home, office or at Kauffman Stadium.
Nokia's Role
The three-channel carrier aggregation promotion was done with the help of Nokia Flexi Multiradio 10 Base Station for LTE TDD (Time-Division Duplex), including TD-LTE-Advanced 8-pipe radio (8T8R) which can distribute all three carriers from a single unit on 8T8R configuration for improved performance and coverage.
Similar LTE-Advancements
In Aug 2016, U.S. telecom behemoth Verizon Communications Inc. VZ completed a major upgradation of its 4G LTE networks to LTE-Advanced technology covering 461 cities in the U.S. The two-channel carrier aggregation will run at download speeds of up to 225 Mbps while three-channel carrier aggregation will have speeds exceeding more than 300 Mbps.
In Mar 2014, AT&T Inc. T became the first wireless operator in the U.S. to launch LTE-A services in Chicago. In Jun 2013, SK Telecom Co. Ltd. SKM of South Korea became the first wireless operator in the world to commercially launch LTE-A network using carrier aggregation.
Sprint currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
