Vodafone Ireland has boasted Europe’s fastest uplink speeds in a commercial network, hitting speeds of 136MBps.
The operator teamed up with Ericsson to use the vendor’s Networks Software upgrade and implement uplink carrier aggregation and 64 QAM modulation.
It said it improved performance by 200 percent in Dublin, resulting in uploads being three times quicker than existing LTE networks. It aggregated two 20 MHz carriers and used a device coupled with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor with X12 LTE.
In a statement, Ericsson said increasing sharing on social networks, video uploads and the adoption of enterprise cloud applications, specifically video conferencing, are driving the need for better quality uplink performance.
Per Narvinger, Head of Radio Access Networks at Ericsson, said: “LTE is a powerful mobile technology that is consistently evolving to meet growing demand from both smartphones users and, increasingly, the Internet of Things.
“By working with leading operators like Vodafone, Ericsson is able to quickly apply our software-based performance enhancements, like Uplink Carrier Aggregation, in commercial networks, to ensure fast time-to-market. Operators increasingly differentiate themselves by improving the app coverage experience for their customers, so gaining the first-mover advantage on new features is critical.”
Last month, Telefónica worked with Nokia to improve uplink speeds in Valencia’s Mestalla stadium. The operator deployed Nokia’s Flexi Multiradio 10 base station, its Flexi Zone small cells and its Flexi Lite base station.