Telstra to launch LTE-B trial this year

Australia's Telstra has announced plans to commence trials of the LTE-Broadcast (LTE-B) technology by year-end.

 

In an interview with The Australian, Telstra's executive director for networks Mike Wright said the company is already setting the stage for the trials.

 

LTE-B is designed to allow cell sites to broadcast high-demand multimedia content, apps and software to multiple users simultaneously, allowing operators to save on bandwidth and improve network efficiency.

 

The technology can purportedly allow an almost unlimited number of devices to access the broadcast content, while leaving the rest of the cell site free to process normal traffic.

 

According to Wright, the purpose of the trial will be to determine how the technology can be best used on commercial networks, whether cost savings can be achieved and the end-to-end effect it would have on Telstra's LTE network.

 

Telstra first announced plans to trial LTE-B back in February. The company has been an early adopter of 4G standards. Its launched a commercial LTE network in September 2011, and plans to start rolling out LTE-Advanced soon.