GO trials 4G+ services

The Maltese telco GO says it has demonstrated what it terms ‘4G+’ technology in lab trials. The operator is looking to employ carrier aggregation (CA) technology to use more than one spectrum band to allow it to boost maximum data speeds. It says it will have to wait for the regulator, the Malta Communications Authority (MCA), to auction new spectrum before the LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) service can go live, though it expects this to take place sometime in 2017. The government has set aside frequencies in the 800MHz, 1800MHz and 2600MHz bands for 4G services. GO says its mobile network is the only one in Malta that is 100% fibre-connected. The firm claimed 38.5% of Malta’s wireless market in subscriber terms at the end of September, according to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database.