By combining three different spectrum bands, EE has managed to achieve impressive mobile broadband speeds of 400Mbps.
The mobile operator has been showing off its accomplishment at Wembley Stadium with partners Qualcomm and Huawei. A Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 CAT 9 processor was used in a bid to help EE make Wembley the world’s most connected stadium. It worked by adding an extra 20MHZ of 2.6GHz spectrum on top of its existing 1800MHz band. On top of this, a three-band approach leveraged a further 15MHz. The end result was an average speed of 370Mbps and a peak of 403Mbps.
These new speeds are a first for the UK and Europe, although consumers won’t be able to take advantage of the boost just yet, as CAT 9 smartphones won’t hit the UK market until next year.
Despite this, the move does ensure that EE remains ahead of its competitors. Moreover, the new spectrum should ensure each band is less burdened with traffic. Therefore, even users with older smartphones should benefit from EE’s breakthrough, as their download speeds are likely to increase, computerweekly.com notes.
Mohamed Madkour, vice president of Huawei wireless marketing department, said in order to meet people’s requirements, operators need to provide more reliable connections with a higher capacities to mobile devices.
“We are thrilled to see the innovative technology of LTE-Advanced coming to reality in a place like Wembley Stadium where a speed-hungry application like 4K video streaming is much needed by many simultaneous users,” he stated.
Unlike standard 4G, which can only reach download speeds of around 150Mbps, LTE-A, otherwise known as 4G+, can hypothetically achieve speeds of up to 300Mbps. Of course, EE has now pushed that upwards by a further 100Mbps by combining three of its spectrum bands.
The 4G+ service will be available at the stadium from next month. EE aims to supply its 4G+ service to 90 per cent of the nation by 2017. It states this will enable people to enjoy superfast browsing speeds and double the amount of mobile capacity they usually receive.
