Orange France has upgraded its 4G LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) network in the city of Villefranche-sur-Saone to provide maximum theoretical speeds of 680Mbps, while ‘real’ downlink speeds were confirmed as 500Mbps. For the upgrade – which used Nokia’s radio equipment – Orange aggregated three frequency bands (for a total of 50MHz), coupled with 4×4 multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) and 256QAM technologies. The operator disclosed that all subscribers in the city could currently benefit from the improved throughput. The 500Mbps download speed was recorded using a Sony Xperia XZ Premium in independent measurement tests carried out in real conditions.