Smart reports fastest LTE-A speed of over 500 Mbps

Smart LTE

Smart Communications Inc. reported LTE-Advance speed of more than 500 megabits per second in Marikina City.
The company said that after activating five-component carrier (5CC) aggregation in Marikina City, it held a series of daytime tests in a densely populated residential area of Marikina City using a Samsung Galaxy S9 smartphone, a 5CC-capable device.
Smart said its LTE-A network has consistently reached data rates of over 500 Mbps, even hitting 558 Mbps at one point.
Smart said it deployed 2CC, 3CC and 4CC in cities across Metro Manila and other major cities.
The telecom company said that in Marikina City, it took five bands and bound them together, providing extremely high LTE-A mobile data speeds to users with capable devices.
“Our LTE-A deployment proves that we have a network that’s capable of providing unprecedented data speeds and world-class internet quality, and has enough capacity to efficiently meet the rapidly rising mobile data traffic,” Smart Senior Vice President for network planning and engineering Mario G. Tamayo said.
LTE-A is described the fastest, commercially available wireless technology for mobile data in the country.  In most Android smartphones, it appears as “4G+” on the part of the screen indicating the available signal.
Iphone and other iOS devices display LTE-A as LTE. 
Smart claimed to be the first operator to commercially deploy LTE-A in the Philippines when it fired up the service in Boracay in April 2016.
Carrier aggregation (CA), a major feature of LTE-A, combines two or more separate bands of radio frequencies to create a bigger pipe for faster data rates and improve the overall user experience. 
Smart said that aside from CA, it is using two other key features of LTE-A, to deploy it initially in the country’s urban areas where there are predominantly more users of advanced devices, to slowly roll out to the rest of the country.
Smart uses 4×4 Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) in its network, which raises the efficiency of available radio frequencies by using multiple antennas for sending and receiving data, and 256 QAM, which enables the transfer of more data from a cellsite tower to a device with a very good radio condition.
Smart said with CA, 4×4 MIMO, and 256 QAM on its network, it is ramping up its LTE-A rollout, and makes a parallel effort to push more capable devices into the market.
"Along with our commitment to roll out LTE-A nationwide, more LTE-A capable devices in the hands of more users is the other half of the key that will lift the mobile data speeds in the country, and put the Philippines at par with the likes of Singapore and South Korea,” said Mr. Tamayo.
Smart said the LTE-A deployment is the sharp edge of a broader effort to blanket the country with high-speed mobile broadband. 

April 2018

 

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