At Mobile World Congress 2017 in Barcelona, Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) and Sprint (NYSE:S) plan to run a live demonstration of gigabit throughput via LTE TDD (time division duplex) over 60 MHz of spectrum in the 2.5 GHz band.
LTE TDD is a mode of the LTE wireless standard for unpaired spectrum that evolved from TD-SCDMA (time division synchronous code division multiple access). It uses a single shared frequency for both upstream and downstream transmission, as opposed to LTE FDD (frequency division duplex), which uses two frequencies, one for upstream and another for downstream.
Dr. John Saw, Sprint CTO, said: "This demonstration highlights the incredible capacity and potential of Sprint's 2.5 GHz spectrum holdings and our ability to keep meeting customers' growing demand for high-speed bandwidth-intensive applications. With gigabit-class performance, our customers will have a great experience using 4K and even 8K TV and applications such as HD virtual reality on the Sprint LTE Plus network."
Sprint has more than 160 MHz of 2.5 GHz (B41) spectrum in 100 U.S. markets and has deployed three-channel carrier aggregation (3CA) on 2.5 GHz in more than 100 markets. The demo will use Ericsson's LTE Advanced features including 4x4 MIMO, 256-QAM, Ericsson Lean Carrier, and 3CA of 60 MHz of 2.5 GHz B41 spectrum.
Ericsson and Sprint will also be working together to test 5G technologies such as Massive-MIMO for LTE TDD using Ericsson's 5G-ready radio (AIR6468) during the second half of 2017.
The joint LTE TDD demonstration will be held daily at Mobile World Congress.