T-Mobile US and Ericsson have announced plans to trial a new technology that combines licensed and unlicensed spectrum to deliver a significant increase in data speed.
The technology is called Licence Assisted Access (LAA), and the Swedish equipment maker plans to integrate it into its small cell products from the fourth quarter. T-Mobile plans to trial the technology using LTE spectrum and unlicensed 5-GHz spectrum, which is used for WiFi.
"LAA is one of the technologies we plan to develop and use in our continuing efforts to provide our customers with superior network performance," said Neville Ray, CTO of T-Mobile US, who noted that the U.S. has approximately 550 MHz of underutilised 5-GHz spectrum.
A recent Ericss on ConsumerLab survey found that only 41% of mobile users are highly satisfied with their indoor experience when browsing or accessing social networks. This falls to 36% when more data-intensive services are used, such as watching video.
Ericsson claimed that by enabling concurrent use of LTE spectrum with just 4% of the available bandwidth in the 5-GHz band, LAA can deliver a speed increase of up to 150 Mbps. The vendor said its technology also ensures equal access to the spectrum, mitigating the impact on WiFi users.
"One of the great things about LAA is its ‘rising tide’ effect, increasing system capacity and making way for better service to all users in the area, whether they have an LAA-enabled device, or are using WiFi or cellular access," said Thomas Norén, vice president and head of radio product management, Ericsson.
The company said it plans to add LAA to its Radio Dot indoor small cell for medium and large buildings, as well as its RBS 6402 indoor picocell for smaller buildings.
