Vodafone Australia has announced the introduction of Massive MIMO technology in its network, using spectrum in the 1800MHz band, at a single cell site in Parramatta, Sydney. The cellco expects to deploy Massive MIMO at five sites initially, with these to serve as trial locations for what the cellco refers to as the ‘4.9G’ technology, with other locations to include Chinatown and Haymarket, both in Sydney. All sites selected for the trial are in high-density, high usage areas.
Commenting on the development, Vodafone’s CTO Kevin Milroy said: ‘The trial is another significant step towards 5G and we’ll be rolling out 4.9G to more areas as the year progresses … We are focused on continuing to evolve and enhance our 4G network to deliver real benefits to our customers now, while Australians wait for the introduction of 5G to consumers in coming years.
Vodafone Australia demonstrated Massive MIMO technology in October 2017, achieving a cell throughput speed of 717Mbps across eight devices in tests conducted with Huawei in a suburb of Sydney, using 20MHz of 1800MHz spectrum.