Editor’s Note:

Gigabit LTE will be the backbone of support for (3GPP Release 15) 5G NR-NSA as it’s used for signaling, evolved packet core (EPC), and network management.  5G with low latency, signaling and a 5G mobile packet core won’t be deployed in mass till IMT 2020 standard has been completed.

INVESTMENT IN GIGABIT LTE NETWORK TECHNOLOGIES WORLDWIDE:

• At the end of February 2019, GSA has identified 101 operators in 60 countries or territories investing in all the three core LTE-Advanced features for Gigabit LTE (defined as Carrier Aggregation, 4×4 MIMO or higher, and 256 QAM modulation in the downlink)
• 53 operators have deployed all three of these technologies and / or launched commercial services based on them
• 313 operators in 133 countries are investing in at least one of the key technologies

DISTRIBUTION OF GIGABIT LTE NETWORKS AND DOWNLINK SPEEDS OF THE FASTEST NETWORKS:

Gigabit LTE does not always equal Gigabit speed. Some networks capable of delivering 1 Gbps downstream do so without using all three key LTE-Advanced (AKA IMT Advanced in ITU-R) features; some networks using all three features do not achieve 1 Gbps

The fastest networks in the GSA database are:

• KDDI, SK Telecom, Swisscom, Telus, Turkcell:  1.2 Gbps
• KT: 1.167 Gbps(achieved using MPTCP to combine LTE with 3CA and WiFi)
• China Unicom:  1.156 Gbps
• Bell Mobility:  1.15 Gbps
• 3 Hong Kong, Singtel:  1.1 Gbps
• Optus: 1.03 Gbps
• Vodafone Italy:  1.023 Gbps
• AT&T Mobility, China Mobile Hong Kong, CYTA, Dialog Axiata, DNA, Elisa, HKT, Inwi(Wana), O2 Czech Republic, Ooredoo Qatar, Smartone, Sprint, StarHub, Telenor Denmark, TeliaSonera Denmark, Telstra, Vodafone Germany, Vodafone Ziggo: 1 Gbps

This data is taken from Gigabit LTE Networks: Analysis of Deployments Worldwide (May 2019) published by GSA and available from www.gsacom.com.

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LTE FAST FACTS: LTE IN UNLICENSED SPECTRUM (DATA AS OF END-APRIL 2019):

• 8 LAA (License Assisted Spectrum) [1] deployments/launches:
• AT&T (US), T-Mobile (US), AIS (Thailand), MTS (Russia), Smartone(Hong Kong), TIM (Italy), Turkcell, Vodafone Turkey (deployed)
• 28 LAA trials and deployments in progress in 18 countries
• The latest include MOTIV and Vimpelcomin Russia, and 3 Indonesia
• 1 eLAAtrial (SK Telecom)
• 3 LTE-U network deployments/launches
• T-Mobile (US) – though it is now switching focus to LAA, AIS (Thailand), Vodacom (South Africa)
• 8 LTE-U trials or pilots in progress
• 1 LWA launch …
• Chunghwa Taiwan and 2 others are trialing the technology (in Singapore and South Korea)
• 1 commercial launch of a private LTE network using CBRS
• 16 operators investing in CBRS trials in the US
• The latest are Altice, CDE Lightband, CoxCommnications, Extenet, Mobilitieand Windstream
• 21 commercially available modem/platform chipsets supporting unlicensed access
• 133 devices announced supporting LTE in unlicensed spectrum or shared spectrum using CBRS (including regional variants)

Note 1.  A variant of LTE-Unlicensed is Licensed Assisted Access (LAA) and has been standardized by the 3GPP in Rel-13. LAA adheres to the requirements of the LBT protocol, which is mandated in Europe and Japan. It promises to provide a unified global framework that complies with the regulatory requirements in the different regions of the world.

• 3GPP Rel-13 defines LAA only for the downlink (DL).
• 3GPP Rel-14 defines enhanced-Licensed Assisted Access (eLAA), which includes uplink (UL) operation in the unlicensed channel.
• 3GPP Rel-15 The technology continued to be developed in 3GPP’s release 15 under the title Further Enhanced LAA (feLAA).

LTE Fast Facts are taken from the GSA report “LTE in Unlicensed Spectrum: Trials, Deployments and Devices April 2019”available from www.gsacom.com.

GSA reports are compiled from data stored in the GSA Analyser for Mobile Broadband Devices/Data (GAMBoD) database.