Jersey Telecom Group and Alcatel–Lucent have announced that they are working together to demonstrate LTE in the 1800MHz band in both Jersey and Guernsey.
This week, a demonstration launched in Jersey and Guernsey, will be the first trial of LTE in the Channel Islands. LTE will provide end users with a better mobile broadband experience, with download speeds of up to 50Mbit/s. Jersey Telecom Group says it already provides the fastest mobile broadband in the Channel Islands at 14.4Mbit/s.
Graeme Millar, Chief Executive Officer of Jersey Telecom, said: “LTE is an important step in our Gigabit Isles strategy, which will deliver the most advanced broadband access for business and domestic consumers in Europe. LTE complements our strategy perfectly and users can look forward to improved quality of service and faster speeds enabling their mobile devices to download HD quality movies and stream live television, download music in seconds and instantly update all their social networks. This demonstration will give us valuable insight into the technology and its application within our markets, and give islanders a chance to glimpse the mobile technology of the future.”
He added: “The Channel Islands is a world-renowned finance centre and the business community here has very specific needs, LTE will deliver the advances they seek and will redefine the mobile office, enabling business applications and tools to be accessed on the move”
Lucy Dimes, Chief Executive Officer of Alcatel-Lucent UK & Ireland said, “We are running more than 60 LTE trials around the world and we are also working with several very large operators, including Verizon and AT&T in the United States, on extensive commercial deployments. Much of that work is being supported by teams in the UK so we have gained a great deal of experience in the technology. Our latest project with Jersey Telecom builds on the very successful tests we ran late last year when we demonstrated the ability of LTE technology to deliver high-speed broadband to rural communities in the UK”.
Jersey Telecom will be trialling various applications using the LTE technology in the 1800Mhz spectrum including, live streaming of HD quality video, creating superfast mobile broadband hotspots and multi-participant video conferencing on the move.
An LTE enabled van will be driving round the islands testing and demonstrating the new technology for islanders.