Ericsson and French mobile operator Orange have completed the first live trial of FDD LTE-Advanced using the 3.5-GHz band.
During a lab trial, the companies achieved peak speeds of 300 Mbps by aggregating spectrum from the 3.5-GHz band with 2.6-GHz carriers.
The second stage of testing involved Orange's live LTE network in the French city of Bordeaux using Ericsson's pre-commercial FDD 3.5-GHz base station equipment.
Using the 3.5-GHz band alone, the companies achieved a peak performance of 150 Mbps at a distance of up to 700 Mbps. Incorporating 2.6-GHz increased the speeds to 300 Mbps.
The trial used Orange's network grid for 1800-MHz and 2.6-GHz spectrum, proving that the existing grid can be reused for a 3.5-GHz macro grid, the companies said.
"This live FDD trial demonstrated that the 3.5 GHz band can be successfully used in urban and suburban environments in stand-alone mode or in aggregation with another band, to provide advanced mobile broadband services using a FDD access scheme for high peak data rate applications,” Orange Labs Networks senior vice president Alan Maloberti said.