At the MWC 2014 (Mobile World Congress), Vodafone and Huawei unveiled LTE-Advanced FDD+TDD Convergence CA solution that offers peak downlink speed of more than 500Mbps.
Huawei’s demo with Vodafone will be involving 3 FDD carriers and 1 TDD carrier.
Vodafone currently has 800MHz, 1800MHz, and 2600MHz, a total of 50MHz spectrum bandwidth in FDD mode and 20MHz of 2600MHz in TDD mode in Spain. This latest FDD+TDD Carrier Aggregation technology will boost Vodafone’s network capacity in the country and enable the operator to have more flexibility in deploying 2CC and 3CC CA solutions in the future.
Vodafone first rolled out its 1800MHz and 2600MHz commercial LTE services in the main cities of Spain at the beginning of 2013, with a peak speed of 150Mbps/user. With this trial of the FDD+TDD Carrier Aggregation solution with Huawei, Spain is set to be one of the fastest digital countries in the world.
Kevin Salvadori, director of Group Technology Strategy & Operations at Vodafone, said, “With Vodafone’s spectrum resource, Carrier Aggregation would enable us to utilize our spectrum more efficiently to provide innovative services and a better experience to our customers.”
LTE-A FDD+TDD Carrier Aggregation — developed by Vodafone and Huawei — improves utilization of spectrum resources, increases peak user data rates and throughput, and reduces operator deployment and operation costs.
Ovum on Vodafone
Steven Hartley, principal analyst at Ovum, said: “The benefit of CA across FDD and TDD LTE is that operators can combine cheaper TDD spectrum with more traditional FDD spectrum to boost capacity and downlink speeds. In this case the partners are promising over 500Mbps. The cost efficiencies for an operator of leveraging the full range of spectrum assets available is unquestionable, but most operators have so far shied away from the technical complexities involved.”
Ovum says operator 3 has already announced its intention to utilize FDD and TDD in Italy and Sweden, based on ZTE infrastructure.
That an industry (and FDD) stalwart of Vodafone’s scale backs a dual-mode approach is notable, yet this announcement is not a complete surprise.
Back in 2009 Vodafone, Verizon, and China Mobile called on vendors to develop equipment and devices supporting both modes. “But today’s announcement goes a step further and enables the two modes to be combined. Furthermore, Vodafone has acquired TDD spectrum in Spain and in the UK’s last spectrum auction, so although today’s news focuses on Spain, we can assume that it will not be an isolated implementation,” Hartley added.
