Swisscom has revealed plans to launch a tri-band CA LTE FDD/ TDD network.
The combination of LTE FDD (Frequency Division Duplex) and TDD (Time Division Duplex) technologies enables maximum speeds of 330Mbps and allows for more capacity on individual radio cells, Swisscom said.
The new network is based on work the operator has done with Ericsson and Qualcomm. Ericsson provided carrier aggregation hardware and software to enable the mix of LTE FDD and TDD technologies, while Qualcomm’s chipset was used for early testing and will enable support for the network on user devices.
The same companies helped Vodafone Portugal launch a commercial FDD/TDD network earlier this year.
The Swisscom Füssli shop in Zürich has already been equipped with the new network, the operator revealed. It said the service would go live in “heavily frequented locations” – chiefly metropolitan areas – from next summer, when the first handsets supporting the technology will become commercially available.
It follows the launch of Swisscom’s VoLTE service in June.
The operator said it would continue to invest in the expansion of its networks in order to keep ahead of the “extreme increase” in mobile data use. It added that FDD/TDD technology held “great potential to continue to increase speeds enormously.”
[Read more: Swisscom preps 5G project with Asian telco]
Heinz Herren, Swisscom CTO, said: “This combination will provide our customers with greater capacity and higher speeds. Swisscom innovates to provide our customers with the best network at all times, today and in the future.
“With this combination of the two LTE modes we are the first provider in Europe to offer a completely new combination of technologies. Thus our customers will benefit significantly from more capacity and higher data rates in our mobile network.”