4G TECHNOLOGY FIRST TESTED IN UKRAINE
On July 29, one of Ukraine telco’s (Intellecom, trademark Giraffe) jointly with Ericsson and Huawei made the first public test of LTE TDD 4G technology in the 2,300 MHz spectrum in Ukraine.
According to the company press release, 77 LTE TDD commercial networks with Voice over LTE (VoLTE)
(VoLTE) functionality operate today in 43 countries in all continents of the world. Moreover, already nearly 2000 models of terminals are available in a wide ecosystem of
gadgets supporting this LTE TDD standard.
Supreme speed and capacity enabled by LTE TDD were demonstrated in tests of radio interface speed, voice and video calls and online HD video launched on several terminals at
once.
“The peak throughput speed observed during the demo was 220 megabit per second. While in the presented network setup, 20 + 20 MHz in the 2,300 MHz spectrum, the
highest possible speed is 224 megabit per second,” said the company representative.
Further on, the demo test showcased voice calls from an LTE smartphone to another LTE smartphone, to a GSM smartphone using one of Ukrainian mobile operator networks and to a
fixed-line desk phone.
The operator presented a live fragment of LTE TDD network and some of its features to Ukraine top officials. Their feedback was clearly positive according to Intellecom
presenters: They were really impressed with 4G speed and functionality and the opportunities it would open-up for different spheres and industries of Ukraine such as agriculture, telecom, education,
healthcare, public utilities etc.
Interest and support shown by Ukrainian top politicians of the new generation is a sign of a new approach where stakes are put on new technologies as a key driver towards national prosperity.
Remarkably, almost simultaneously Vodafone UK and Huawei have launched technical trials of a new mobile technology, 4.5G (TDD+) based on LTE TDD in order to increase
capacity and efficiency of Vodafone 4G/LTE network in urban areas. This will also be a critical input for introduction of 5G by 2020.
A new 4*4 MIMO (Multiple-Input Multiple-Output) technology coupled with eight-way transmit and receive (8T8R) and multi-user beam-forming are currently tested in Manchester City.