Deutsche Telekom and Huawei have pushed the data download speed on LTE to more than a gigabit per second.
The companies say they have achieved 1.22Gbps speeds in Berlin using four sending and receiving channels and five carrier frequencies.
"We are ahead of our time and ahead of the competition," said Claudia Nemat, Deutsche Telekom’s board member for Europe and technology.
Deutsche Telekom and Huawei say that these speeds were achieved in DT’s live network in Berlin, not in the laboratory.
"User behaviour is evolving rapidly on the way to a gigabit society," said Nemat. "That’s why fast internet access can’t be limited to just fixed lines and fibre optics – our customers also want the highest possible speeds for maximum comfort on the go as well. As you can see, our network delivers."
The companies used an upgraded version of today’s LTE, called LTE Advanced Pro, with a conventional mobile base station, which was bundled with a small cell solution. The data traffic flowed over five carrier frequencies instead of just one.
Transmitter and receivers all supported 4×4 MIMO (multiple input – multiple output) technology.
"Huawei is happy to support Deutsche Telekom to prove the benefits of the latest evolutionary step of this technology, LTE Advanced Pro, in real field application," said Lin Baifeng, president of Huawei’s key account operations with Deutsche Telekom.
In a test in 2015, the two companies bundled three carrier frequencies in Berlin, reaching speeds of over 340Mbps – one quarter of the speed in the latest demonstration.