Sprint and Nokia have kicked-off the launch of a three-channel carrier aggregation in Kansas City’s LTE Plus Network with a live demonstration at Kauffman Stadium. This was done just prior to the Royals vs Yankees match-up, where the companies showcased this technology, reaching peak speeds as high as 230 Mbps inside the stadium using the Samsung Note7, Galaxy S7, S7 edge, HTC 10 and LG G5.
Carrier aggregation is an LTE-Advanced feature that brings together multiple bands of spectrum to create wider channels, produce greater capacity and deliver faster speeds on capable devices. Essentially it creates a wider lane that allows more data traffic to travel at higher rates.
Sprint began their roll-out of two-channel aggregation in 2015. They use two-channel carrier aggregation to deliver peak speeds of more than 100 Mbps in 237 LTE Plus markets across the United States using 40 MHz of 2.5 GHz spectrum on the company’s LTE Plus cell sites. With three-channel carrier aggregation, they will utilize 60 MHz of spectrum in the 2.5 GHz band to provide peak download speeds of more than 200 Mbps on compatible devices. They hold more than 160 MHz of 2.5 GHz spectrum in the top 100 U.S. markets and use the 800 MHz and 1.9 GHz spectrum to provide strong coverage and reliability across its LTE Plus network.
Sprint has started their three-channel carrier aggregation deployment in Kansas City with more than 100 cell sites slated to be on air in the metro area by the end of September. This announcement follows a live demonstration by them earlier this month at Soldier Field in Chicago where they have more than 500 cell sites deployed across the city.
At Kauffman Stadium Sprint utilized their 2.5 GHz spectrum to deliver download speeds as high as 230 Mbps. They also showcased live streaming of ultra-high definition 4K video and the blazing fast, high-bandwidth capability of their LTE Plus Network. Participants were also able to experience a low-latency, high-speed, virtual reality system.
Behind the scenes, this demonstration utilized the Nokia Flexi Multiradio 10 Base Station for LTE TDD, including TD-LTE-Advanced 8-pipe radio (8T8R) that can deliver all three carriers from a single unit on an 8T8R configuration for better performance and coverage. Sprint is the only carrier in the U.S. using 8T8R radios which improve LTE Plus coverage and signal strength. More antennas deliver a stronger, narrower beam that transmit more energy to the cell edge giving customers better coverage, reliability, and faster data speeds.
