T-Mobile and Ericsson first in North America to demonstrate nearly 1 Gbps LTE over-the-air on commercially available network equipment and software

• Demo conducted in T-Mobile’s Bellevue lab using commercially available LTE network equipment and software from Ericsson
• The demo combined advanced 3CC Carrier Aggregation, 4x4 MIMO and 256 QAM functionality on the downlink
• Together these latest and most advanced technologies improve network capacity and user experience, bringing the peak speeds of LTE to gigabit range ahead of 5G deployments

T-Mobile and Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) have reached near gigabit speeds in an over-the-air demonstration of LTE. The demo achieved peaks of 979 Mbps, with stable throughputs well above 900 Mbps.

The demo took place in T-Mobile’s lab in Bellevue, Washington. The configuration used only 60 MHz of total carrier bandwidth, taking advantage of the latest advances in LTE that combine 3CC Carrier Aggregation, 4x4 MIMO and 256 QAM functionality on the downlink.

Neville Ray, T-Mobile Chief Technology Officer, says: “Reaching near Gigabit speeds on LTE shows how much more capability that LTE offers, and T-Mobile will be first in the US to launch Gigabit LTE to customers. Ericsson’s equipment and software helps maximize spectrum efficiency today and as more frequencies are deployed in the future.”

Ericsson’s strong design and solution capabilities enable T-Mobile to deploy the most advanced LTE networks for its subscribers as it lays the groundwork for 5G.

Arun Bansal, Head of Business Unit Network Products, says: “The record-breaking speeds achieved in our recent demo show the importance of LTE as an investment and its robustness as a technology. LTE will offer T-Mobile and its customers an enhanced user experience on its road to 5G.”

Ericsson is present today in all high-traffic LTE markets including US, Japan, and South Korea, and is ranked first for handling the most global LTE traffic. In addition, forty percent of the world’s total mobile traffic is carried over Ericsson networks. More than 270 LTE RAN and Evolved Packet Core networks have been delivered by Ericsson worldwide, of which 200 are live commercially.