SingTel announced today it is ready to launch the world’s first commercial LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) network supporting theoretical peak download speeds of up to 300Mb/s.
Singapore’s largest operator will go live with the service on Saturday (August 23), when it also introduces the Samsung Galaxy S5 4G+, “the first handset globally to be compatible with 4G LTE-Advanced networks.” A second LTE-A smartphone, the Galaxy Alpha 4G+, will be available in Singapore next month.
The LTE-A network, which first went live for testing in late May, combines 20MHz of bandwidth from each of the 1.8 and 2.6GHz bands.
Working with Ericsson, SingTel said it has extended street-level coverage of its LTE-A network to more than 55 per cent of the island. “We have accelerated our network roll out programme and are on track to achieve nationwide outdoor coverage by the first quarter of next year,” said Tay Yeow Lian, SingTel’s managing director of Networks.
South Korea’s SK Telecom announced in June that its new LTE-A service supports speeds of up to 225Mb/s using carrier aggregation. SK’s rival LG Uplus has also trialled tri-band LTE carrier aggregration using kit from Huawei, which it claims can offer peak speeds of 300Mb/s. It plans to launch commercial services later this year.
In May Telstra demonstrated network speeds of 450Mb/s also using LTE-A carrier aggregation technology.
SingTel will offer the S5 4G+ for between SGD688 (US$552) and free, depending on the service plan .
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