Telekom Slovenije has extended its LTE-Advanced network to more than 35 percent of the country’s population, just months after launching its network upgrade project.
The Slovenian operator is offering download speeds of up to 450MBps and uplink of up to 50MBps to customers with compatible handsets, compared to 150MBps and 50MBps top speeds respectively on its LTE network.
In addition to the increased speeds, Telekom Slovenije highlighted the increased network stability as another advantage.
Matjaž Pogačnik, Director of Access Networks at Telekom Slovenije, said: “By providing 4G+ technology to a broader scope of our users we upgraded and improved the capacities of our mobile network. This is comparable to doubling the number of lanes on a motorway. This means that we provided our users with more capacity, thereby allowing those with phones and devices that support 4G+ to achieve even higher speeds and more reliable data transfer.”
Pogačnik said the operator has upgraded almost 30 percent of its base stations to support LTE-Advanced, initially focusing on areas of high density use like stadiums before turning attentions to towns across the country.
The deployment follows a test in December last year when network teams were able to hit speeds of 881MBps on a Cat16 LTE device by aggregating the 1800MHz and 2.6GHz bands.
The operator is also contributing to two projects in the European Union’s innovation Horizon 2020 program. The iCIRRUS explores device to device communication and how radio access networks can be centralised to improve spectrum and energy efficiency.
Charisma focuses on how better architecture planning can result in low latency, high security networks.
Matjaž Beričič, Director of Core Network at Telekom Slovenije, added: “Telekom Slovenije’s collaboration in the development of fifth generation mobile technologies is a guarantee that we will continue to make it possible for our users to take advantage of all that the latest technologies bring in the future.”