Release of 06.06.2013
- A1 Telekom Austria has already made available the first development stage of the LTE (Long Term Evolution) standard, which will be further developed going forward
- Rising data transmission volumes require the further evolution of LTE
- LTE offers considerable potential to boost currently available capacities
- Technology partners are Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks
- Croatian subsidiary Vipnet demonstrated new world record speeds
Vienna, June 6, 2013 - In recent years, Internet usage has not only spread across all sections of the population and all age groups, but is increasingly becoming mobile. With the advent of smartphones and tablets, the demands placed upon mobile networks are growing rapidly. In order to be well equipped for the expected surge in data volumes going forward, A1 (Telekom Austria Group’s operative company in Austria) jointly with its technology partners Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks, is already gathering valuable experiences with regard to the further evolution of mobile technologies in the years to come.
“Apps on smartphones and tablets that enable the exchange of photos and video clips are becoming increasingly popular among our customers. As a result, data volumes across the mobile networks will continue to significantly increase in the years to come. In close collaboration with the development laboratories of its technology suppliers, Telekom Austria Group is already testing the next generations of LTE,” said Hans Pichler, Group CTO of the Telekom Austria Group.
First Development Stage of LTELTE (Long Term Evolution) is the fourth generation of mobile communication and enables higher capacities, particularly in terms of data transmission speeds and multimedia applications. In Austria, A1 has already made available the first development stage of the LTE standard over the past two years, allowing for data rates of up to 150 Mbit/s per cell. Against the backdrop of current usage trends of end-devices as well as the increasing importance of M2M (the Internet of Things), currently available capacities will have to be considerably expanded to meet future demands going forward.
More Capacity with LTE Advanced in FutureIn a demonstration, A1 technology partners Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks have shown how these future requirements can be effectively met. “The LTE standard has been designed in such a way as to allow the use of different frequency bands and therefore to enable international roaming. One of the next steps will be carrier aggregation, which allows for a considerable increase in data rates,“ said Volker Ziegler, Head of Strategy and Technology Portfolio at Nokia Siemens Networks.
Network capacities can also be further enhanced by exploiting the time differences of a radio signal using multiple paths within the same frequency channel. This requires the deployment of a corresponding larger number of antennas at both the transmitter and the receiver.
“The new MIMO technologies are not market-ready yet. However, development departments are well on track and can already anticipate what can be expected over the next few years. In combination with carrier aggregation, they will turn LTE Advanced into a Gigabit technology that will allow a large number of users to simultaneously access high data rates within one mobile radio cell. For future planning purposes, network providers need to be able to anticipate future technology trends to adjust their strategies accordingly,” explained Sanne Stijve, Business Development Manager Mobile Broadband at Ericsson.
A1 Telekom Austria Broadband StrategyWithin the framework of a comprehensive broadband rollout plan for Austria, A1 is gradually expanding and up-grading both its fixed net and mobile communication networks. In the fixed net area, A1 is currently rolling out a future-proof, high-speed fiber-optic network, which among other things delivers contents from the Internet to A1 customers via the company’s LTE mobile base stations. In the mobile area, A1 is already operating Austria’s largest 4G/LTE network. To date, A1 4G/LTE network has been made available to all provincial capitals countrywide and to several major urban centers, where it reaches 80% coverage of the population, whereas network coverage across Austria currently amounts to roughly 30%.
Vipnet Demonstrated New World Record SpeedOn Monday, the Croatian subsidiary Vipnet demonstrated a data speed of 300 Mbit/s based on 4.5G or LTE Advanced at Zagreb's Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing. For end-users, this will mean the possibility of super-fast transfers of huge amounts of data, which is of great importance considering the enormous increase in the use of data traffic.
The breaking of the world record in fixed data transfers was achieved with Vipnet’s HFC (Hybrid Fiber Coaxial) network: With an astonishing speed of 5 Gbit/s, the world record in the hybrid fiber coaxial network was broken within a laboratory framework.
The results of the demonstration put Vipnet at the very top of the world in terms of demonstrated possibilities of fixed and mobile networks. Vipnet's experts have demonstrated their technical excellence and innovation.