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Qualcomm, Netgear complete development of cat 16 WiFi router.
Telstra on Tuesday inched closer to launching 1-Gbps LTE services, after its hardware partners announced they have completed the design of the first device that will run on the upgraded network.
Netgear’s Mobile Router MR1100, powered by Qualcomm’s X16 LTE modem and WiFi solutions, is a mobile broadband hotspot and the world’s first LTE category 16 (cat 16) end user device.
"Achieving the world’s first Gigabit-class LTE download speeds between a mobile device and commercially-ready network is another industry achievement towards the availability of Gigabit LTE services," said Serge Willenegger, SVP of Qualcomm Technologies, in a statement.
To reach 1 Gbps LTE, the hotspot supports 3x carrier aggregation (CA), with 4×4 multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) on two aggregated carriers, plus 2×2 MIMO on the third carrier, and 256 quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) – a signal modulation scheme that supports a higher data rate.
At Mobile World Congress this year, when Telstra first shared its plan to launch 1-Gbps LTE, the operator said Netgear’s mobile hotspot will also include a 4,300 mAh battery, and will allow up to 20 devices to connect to it at once.
"Netgear is redefining what a mobile router can be and the experiences it can deliver," said Andrew Green, vice president of mobile network products at Netgear, on Tuesday.
Telstra will now undertake device, network and user testing ahead of a commercial launch in the coming months, said Qualcomm.
"With the world’s first Gigabit-class LTE network, we have substantially improved our network capacity and increased real-world LTE download speeds, while also gaining a distinct advantage over competitors as we can now offer an entirely new class of LTE service," said Mike Wright, managing director of networks at Telstra.
