Swisscom breaks 1Gbps barrier with LTE-A Pro

European telco Swisscom says it has broken the 1Gbps barrier for mobile data transmission, claiming a first for any operator on the continent.

According to Swisscom, the trial was conducted over the live mobile network and successfully achieved the 1Gbps speed in partnership with Ericsson. It claims the breakthrough will allow for future relief of burdensome data transfer growth by its customer base, while stating that data volume on its mobile broadband network is still doubling year-on-year.

Having already launched LTE-Advanced in Switzerland, the telco expects the trial to underpin the tech used in its forthcoming LTE-Advanced Pro launch, which is due to arrive in early 2017. Swisscom has suggested the peak data speeds will reach 1Gbps download and 150Mbps upload.

While no devices currently support LTE-A Pro, which we could coin 4G++, Swisscom fully expects to see new handset models being released around Mobile World Congress next year. We can speculate the operator will be ready to launch 4G++, or be close to doing so, by March 2017.

A Swisscom statement said it will continue to work on optimising various iterations of existing LTE technology while it awaits 5G standards to develop and roll out across the industry.

“Until the fifth generation of mobile technology (5G) is standardised and rolled out, Swisscom will continue to make its existing network faster and improve it with carrier aggregation, which combines multiple frequencies.”

CEO of Ericsson Switzerland, Martin Bürki, says the partnership with Swisscom is illustrating its effectiveness with the announcement.

“Swisscom is one of the most innovative mobile providers worldwide. With Europe’s very first LTE Advanced Pro transfer of 1 Gbps live over Swisscom’s mobile broadband network, we are highlighting the innovative strength of our close and effective collaboration.”