Ericsson along with Qualcomm and Russian telecom leader MTS, has jointly deployed Licensed Assisted Access (LAA) technology in Ufa City, Russia. This is the first commercial LAA rollout in the region to deliver Gigabit LTE speeds and is part of the agreement entered by MTS and Ericsson in 2017 to upgrade the MTS network with Ericsson Radio System and core network solutions in preparation of 5G and IoT.
LAA is an important technology in the LTE network evolution to 5G, providing access to new unlicensed frequencies. With this milestone, MTS has surpassed its previous 700 Mbps speed record, enabling the service provider to take the next step in turning its mobile infrastructure into gigabit-capable. This is the first LAA network in Russia and Eastern Europe and an important milestone on the way to 5G. It will allow MTS to build gigabit LTE networks quickly and cost-effectively in places with active traffic consumption, where operators do not always have enough available frequencies in the licensed spectrum.
Gigabit LTE can help operators increase network throughput and achieve higher spectral efficiency, providing incredible network speeds to users of mobile devices powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon Gigabit LTE modems with LAA support, including Snapdragon 835 and 845 Mobile Platforms.
According to Sebastian Tolstoy, Head of Ericsson Russia, LAA will give service providers access to new spectrum, increasing network capacity and supporting both higher peak rates and higher-than-average speed rates. The commercial rollout marks another important milestone in their strategic cooperation with MTS. While earlier they had achieved peak throughput data rates of 25 Gbps at a joint 5G trial, the next step is to prepare for a new demonstration of enhanced 5G capabilities during the FIFA football world cup in Russia this year.
The deployment took place in a large trade center following a series of tests conducted on a live MTS network using a commercial smartphone. The gigabit-per-second speeds were achieved using Ericsson Radio System software, including 256-QAM and 4CC Carrier Aggregation of 10 streams with 4x4 MIMO on a 20 MHz licensed carrier coupled with 3x20 MHz LAA. In addition, a range of Ericsson Radio System products including the LAA-powered Radio 2205, Baseband 5216, and B3 1800 MHz band configured Radio 2212 were used in the rollout.
