Vodafone Romania and Huawei have used five carrier aggregation across FDD and TDD bands, 256QAM and 4×4 MIMO to hit theoretical speeds of 1.38GBps.
Huawei described the trial as being held on “an experimental structure not isolated from [Vodafone’s] commercial network.
The operator used the trial to launch its Superfast 4G+ service, which has been rolled out to 41 county capitals, Bucharest and 330 other locations. It did not say what speeds it would be offering through the new carrier aggregation service.
Vodafone Romania CTO Catalin Buliga said: “Following the past two years’ consistent investments, our network has evolved significantly and now leads in leveraging the 4G+ technology for the benefit of our customers.
“We now launch Supernet 4G+ and provide higher speeds, the best mobile experience for HD video, as certified by the independent auditor P3 Communications, deeper indoor coverage and enhanced security.
“By mastering the 4G+ technology and our advanced mobile infrastructure, we were able to cross the barrier of 1GBps download speed in our tests. We have reached 1.35GBps with the great efforts of joint team between Vodafone with Huawei, far ahead of what today terminals can sustain.”
Meanwhile, Finnish operator DNA said LTE traffic on its network grew by 120 percent last year, thanks to the growth in video content, and popularity of data only devices such as modems and tablets.
The operator, which reported in September that mobile traffic was now outpacing fixed, had total data traffic growth of 76 percent.
Jarkko Laari, Director of Radio Networks at DNA, said: “We have estimated that in the coming years, we may carry up to 10 times as much mobile data traffic as today. The high growth in 4G data will slow down only after the number of 4G users becomes saturated.
“Although 4G data traffic grew by as much as 120 percent in the past year, the growth was even stronger the year before. This is clear proof that 4G is becoming the norm for mobile communications. Our 4G network already covers most of Finland.”
Laari added that as much as 82 percent of DNA’s mobile data traffic is carried across its LTE network.