SK Telecom has launched what it claims is the world’s first commercial tri-band carrier aggregation (CA) network.
The operator has combined 10 MHz of 800-MHz spectrum with 20 MHz of 1800-MHz spectrum and 10 MHz of 2.1-GHz spectrum to increase the theoretical peak speed of its LTE-Advanced network to 300 Mbps.
SK Telecom currently offers dual-band LTE-A in 84 South Korean cities via its 800-MHz and 1800-MHz frequencies. It has begun augmenting this footprint with 2.1-GHz spectrum and plans to deploy 26,000 new base stations throughout the country during the first quarter of 2015.
The first device capable of connecting to the network comes in the form of an updated version of Samsung’s Galaxy Note 4. SK Telecom plans to sell a limited number of handsets to early adopters who will be asked to provide feedback on the upgraded network’s performance.
SK Telecom said it will not charge a premium for access to its tri-band LTE-A network. The company also said it will use the upgraded infrastructure to offer new, but as yet unspecified, value-added services.
The announcement, made in late December, came after almost a year of build-up. SK Telecom was granted permission to refarm its 2.1-GHz spectrum in February 2014. Later that same month it demonstrated tri-band CA at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. A representative from SK Telecom told Total Telecom at the time that the operator planned to launch tri-band LTE-A in 2015.
SK Telecom was the first operator in the world to commercially launch carrier aggregation and it is keen to stay ahead of the game.
"The company, under its technology roadmap on 5G, is making aggressive efforts to develop the world’s fastest telecommunication technology," said SK Telecom in its recent announc ement. "With the successful commercialisation of tri-band LTE-A CA, SK Telecom not only secures an important edge in LTE-A 4-band CA and 5-band CA, but also moves a step closer to realising 5G service[s]."
