SK Telecom and Qualcomm have held what they claim is the first over the air demonstration of license assisted access (LAA) technology and its enhanced counterpart.
LAA allows operators to aggregate both licensed and unlicensed spectrum but only boosts download speeds.
This demonstration, which was held at SK Telecom’s Corporate R&D Centre in Bundang, Korea, used an enhanced version of the technology to increase data speeds in both the uplink and downlink channels.
The two companies used both the operator’s 2.6GHz holding and a channel in the 5GHz unlicensed band for the demo.
Both telcos said the results shown across multiple test cases had twice as much capacity in the 5GHz channel than when using only Wi-Fi.
[Read more: Spectrum allocation vital for 5G, Qualcomm urges governments]
Eduardo Esteves, Vice President, Product Management, Qualcomm Technologies, said: “This trial aims to demonstrate fair and harmonious coexistence of LAA with Wi-Fi in unlicensed spectrum. This is also a manifestation of Qualcomm Technologies’ and SK Telecom’s leadership in leveraging the latest technologies to improve user experience.”
Jin Hyo Park, Head of Network Technology at SK Telecom, added: “A flexible combination between licensed and unlicensed spectrum is necessary to enable high quality massive 5G service. We will lead the network innovation towards LTE-A Pro and 5G including combining licensed and unlicensed spectrum technologies such as eLAA.”
License assisted access is seen as means of coping with booming data demand amid constraints on spectrum, as the industry moves towards 5G.
In August, ABI Research said the technology could have a positive knock-on effect on small cells, as operators look to use it to boost capacity and network performance.