Ericsson and Qualcomm Technologies, a wholly owned subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, successfully completed the world's first inter-vendor interoperability testing of LTE Category 6, based on commercial LTE chipsets and infrastructure supporting Telstra's carrier aggregation bands.
 
 Final stages of testing were completed in collaboration with Telstra, whose LTE Advanced network in Australia is being readied for Category 6 commercial launch. LTE Category 6 offers much higher potential data speeds than Category 4, which peaks at 150Mbps.
 
Håkan Eriksson, CEO, Australia and New Zealand at Ericsson, says: "We are pleased to see 300Mbps achieved and we're excited about the superior broadband experience this will enable. With the introduction of Category 6, adoption of LTE Advanced is expected to accelerate, with a key factor being the availability of commercial infrastructure and global chipsets for smartphones."
 
The equipment used for the tests was based on ready-to-release versions of Ericsson's L14A software release, which allows for unparalleled user experience on operator networks using multi-frequency deployments. Ericsson L14A embraces load balancing for better spectrum efficiency and improved user experience during high-load situations. It supports all bandwidth and frequency combinations for up to 40MHz Carrier Aggregation, providing users with speeds of up to 300Mbps.
 
The test used Qualcomm Technologies' fourth-generation 3G/LTE multimode modem, the Qualcomm® Gobi(TM) 9x35 chipset.
 
Serge Willenegger, Vice President, Product Management, Qualcomm Technologies Inc. says: "We're excited to be playing an important role in enabling the world's first multi-vendor commercial LTE Category 6 solution. This latest collaboration with Ericsson is yet another example of delivering the fastest and most versatile mobile broadband experiences globally."