The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) did not originally consider LTE, WiMAX, and HSPA+ to be 4G systems Advanced LTE has download speeds of 300 mbps to 1 Gbps and is a true 4G system.
A brief summary of status of mobile carriers’ LTE-A penetration is provided below.
SK Telecom
SK Telecom has successfully tested their core LTE-Advanced technologies as of July 5th, 2012
CoMP* (Coordinated Multi-Point) technology commercialized in January 2012
eICIC** (Enhanced Inter-Cell Interference Coordination) technology successfully tested in collaboration with Qualcomm and Nokia Siemens Network
Plans to commercialize Carrier Aggregation*** towards the end of 2013
SK Telecom already has 100 mbps wireless service using a heterogeneous network of LTE and Wifi.
Russian Yota
Yota has launched the first commercial network using LTE Advanced, though its vendor,
Huawei, also describes it as a test LTE-A network
LTE Advanced technology has been installed on 11 base stations in the city, and initial transmissions have achieved the target 300 megabits speed
No user terminals are yet available
Expects delivery of the first devices in the first half of 2013
Sprint
Sprint plans to deploy its LTE-Advanced network
800 MHz spectrum by first half of 2013
AT&T
AT&T confirms LTE-Advanced deployment in 2013
T-Mobile
T-Mobile has signed multi-year agreements with Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks
3GPP Release 10 equipment will be provided by the two companies
LTE-Advanced trials set to begin this summer
Broad LTE deployment on track for 2013
Clearwire
Clearwire plans to deploy an LTE Advanced-ready network by June 2013
Will allow for peak rates of 168Mbps through carrier aggregation
Will not be in commercial products until 2014
Telstra
Telstra could possibly operate advanced LTE services on the 900 MHz and 1800 MHz bands
Plans to upgrade approximately 7,500 cell sites and base stations over the next 12 months
NTT DoCoMo
NTT DoCoMo has begun building test network near Tokyo
Achieved downlink speeds of around 1Gbps and uplinks of around 200Mbps in LTE Advanced lab tests
Also Extending HSPA+ to HSPA+ Advanced and 336+ Mbps
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Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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