Everything Everywhere and BT Wholesale have launched the first live trial of LTE services using 800MHz spectrum in the UK. The two operators have moved from a test phase into live trials, with 200 triallists in St. Newlyn East and the surrounding area of South Newquay, which has low or no broadband service availability, accessing a trial LTE network.
The trial combines mobile and fixed access, with one hundred mobile and one hundred fixed-wireless broadband triallists testing the application of 4G LTE as a shared fixed and mobile platform, using 10MHz of test 800MHz spectrum.
The customer trial follows an eight week laboratory trial which tested the network deployment in simulated conditions, to prove it would be possible to share, manage and optimise valuable radio resources between two service providers.  The field trial will now examine the experience of live triallists to help both Everything Everywhere and BT Wholesale test and better understand realistic 4G LTE speeds, as well as general mobile broadband data service conditions in rural areas.
The trial is being implemented with support from technology partners Nokia Siemens Networks and Huawei.
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(Photo credit: Tony Atkin)