Telstra conducts LTE broadcast on live network

Australian operator Telstra as completed what it claims is the world’s first LTE Broadcast session on a commercial LTE network.

The operator said it successfully activated and tested infrastructure vendor Ericsson’s LTE Broadcast Solution on its live network with the transmission of concurrent video feeds and large files to enabled devices.

The different devices received different video feeds during the demonstration, including a sports match replay, sporting network news, horse racing coverage and news. Additionally, the devices received a large file using the single LTE Broadcast channel.

“The trial is an important step in testing this technology to see how it provides network efficiencies while providing consumers the content they want in a high-quality experience,” said Mike Wright, Telstra executive director for Networks. “Our goal is to ensure consumers can get the content they are looking for easily and to explore the wider benefits that might be obtained using broadcasting technology.”

Thomas Norén, VP and head of project area radio at Ericsson added that LTE Broadcast provides the ability to send the same content simultaneously to a very large number of devices in a target area.

“Mobile operators can use this ability and monetise their media and network assets for new services. Revenue generation and cost-saving opportunities are significant and provide an attractive value proposition for mobile operators.”

Ericsson added that its LTE Broadcast solution transforms the video experience, offering high quality broadcast video over LTE networks and enabling service providers to optimize the use of the existing spectrum and networks. Qualcomm Labs’ LTE Broadcast SDK and Middleware enabled these features on the trial devices running on Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and integrated modem platforms.

Ericsson’s Mobility Report 2013 predicts that video traffic in mobile networks will grow by around 60 per cent annually until 2018.

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