Telstra, Ericsson, Qualcomm and NETGEAR Achieve 2Gbps Speeds in Live Demo

Telstra, Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC), NETGEAR and Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, announced they have achieved record-breaking 4G speeds of up to 2 Gigabits per second (Gbps) in lab testing using a new commercially announced chipset.

The top speeds were made possible using Ericsson’s Baseband 6630, Radio 4415, and latest Gigabit LTE network software. The extreme speeds are enabled by aggregating five 20 MHz LTE carriers across three different frequency bands with each carrier using 4x4 MIMO and 256 QAM technologies.

The demonstration saw 2Gbps speeds achieved by aggregating 100MHz of spectrum across the bands 1, 3 and 7, using a NETGEAR Nighthawk mobile router equipped with Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ X24 LTE modem, the world's first-announced Category 20 LTE modem.

Telstra’s Group Managing Director of Networks Mike Wright says; “With the ever-increasing demand for data and the need to provide our customers with a superior user experience, we are always striving to provide new solutions and develop advanced technologies. Following Telstra’s world first Gigabit-enabled network launch in January 2017, we are delighted to again be partnering with Ericsson and Qualcomm to double these speeds. This achievement demonstrates our continued LTE innovation, providing our customers with an unrivalled network experience and preparing our networks for future growth.”

Following the world’s first 1Gbps speeds demonstration in November 2015 and the first commercial Gigabit LTE network launch in January 2017, this latest technology breakthrough accelerates joint efforts by Ericsson, Telstra, Qualcomm Technologies and NETGEAR to deliver the world’s leading Gigabit LTE network, paving the way for increased capability and performance on the journey towards 5G.

Serge Willenegger, Senior Vice President and General Manager, 4G/5G and Industrial IoT, Qualcomm Wireless GmbH says: “By setting this major industry milestone, we’re helping mobile operators fully mobilize their spectrum assets and maximize the capacity of their Gigabit LTE networks and allowing mobile device makers to offer consumers a preview of new services soon expected to be enabled with 5G networks.”

Joakim Sorelius, Head of Product Area Network Systems at Ericsson, says: “We’re pushing the boundaries of technology and providing unprecedented advances in LTE evolution by breaking the 2Gbps-barrier with our partners. This technology advancement will enable faster mobile broadband speeds and greater network capacity for all subscribers. This is important as users consume and generate greater amounts of content via video streaming and share their own pictures and video content.”