A1 Slovenia achieves 878Mbps speeds in 1800MHz, 2600MHz trial

A1 Slovenia (previously known as Si.mobil), a part of the Telekom Austria Group, has revealed that it achieved downlink transmissions speeds of up to 877.5Mbps in a trial staged at the company’s premises in Ljubljana. The trial – which utilised the cellco’s live network – aggregated 20MHz of spectrum in the 1800MHz band with 35MHz in the 2600MHz band. The latter spectrum was supported with 4×4 multiple-input, multiple-output ( 4×4 MIMO) technology in the downlink, while the 256QAM coding scheme was introduced on both frequencies, boosting the maximum peak data rate by an additional 30%. Further, the trial also incorporated 4.5G Pro technology, courtesy of vendor partner Nokia. Telekom Austria Group claims that the trial represents ‘one of the fastest live LTE networks currently available in Europe’, and notes that the tests pave the way for the operator’s planned implementation of 5G mobile technology by 2020.