Multi Carrier
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SK Telecom utilizing Multi Carrier technology to improve LTE service, roaming
South Korean wireless carrier SK Telecom has officially begun the commercial rollout of its Multi Carrier (MC) network. The technology, which will be available in twenty-three cities by the close of 2012, will allow equipped devices to seamlessly wander between the 800MHz and 1.8GHz LTE frequencies (while also adding 20MHz of uplink/downlink spectrum). Aside from improving throughput and coverage within the country, SK hopes the addition of the 1.8GHz frequency to its handsets' repertoire will provide customers with a better LTE roaming experience when abroad -- a handful of Asian and European nations have settled on 1.8GHz as their Long Term Evolution band of choice. New devices, with compatible radios, will be necessary to leverage the Multi Carrier goodness, although the carrier did note that Samsung's ever-popular Galaxy S III would support the hotness. We would like to raise our glass to SK Telecom and offer a toast to the bright future of multi-band high-speed wireless networks. Cheers!
Nokia Siemens makes multi-carrier HSPA+ hurtle at 336Mbps
It's easy to shrug off technical achievements like this while real-world data speeds still lag so far behind. Nevertheless, the adrenalin junkies at Nokia Siemens Services insist their latest HSPA+ platform will be commercially available to carriers by the end of next year and, to prove it actually works, they've been demoing at PT Expo Comm in Beijing. The technology uses the latest 3GPP standardization to hog eight 42Mbps frequency channels at the same time, delivering a peak throughput of 336Mbps. Sure, it doesn't come close to the 1Gbps speeds we've seen from Ericsson with LTE-Advanced, but if it gets here first we'll have it. [Thanks, Alan]
Ericsson promises 42Mbps HSPA demo using multi-carrier technology
Leave Ericsson alone for five seconds, and it goes and makes the technology it was just bragging about seem archaic. Just in case Telstra's 21Mbps Next G network seemed a bit -- how do you say, sluggish? -- Ericsson will be showcasing a new approach that enables peak downlink data rates of 42Mbps at Mobile World Congress. In order to achieve such tremendous speeds, it will rely on its so-called multi-carrier technology, which is the next (or is that next-next?) generation of HSPA. The secret? It allows users to "receive data simultaneously on two frequency channels," which doubles the data rate in the coverage area of an HSPA network and on the cell edge. The best part of all this isn't that you can one day look forward to crushing your cable modem with a wireless USB stick, it's that "one day" will be ready to happen before the dawn of 2010. Huzzah![Via phonescoop, image courtesy of TornadoChaser]
