Sprint and Ericsson working together to demonstrate Gigabit LTE

4G LTE is a must in most developed countries. So what comes next? There are already talks of 5G technology – ranging from AT&T’s recently announced 5G Evolution network to Verizon’s partnership with Samsung. Well, Sprint is joining in on the fun and will be demonstrating its Gigabit LTE TDD at MWC this weekend. While it’s not technically 5G, which the two companies will start testing later this year, it is a crucial foundational step towards 5G.

Sprint says that this is industry’s first demonstration of Gigabit LTE TDD over 60MHz of spectrum to reach 1Gbps class speeds. This means you can download a high-definition movie in a matter of seconds. The US carrier is working with Ericsson to use a high-frequency transmitter, multi-antenna technology, and higher order modulation among other technologies in order to achieve gigabit speeds.

The carrier claims that its Gigabit LTE technology enhances efficiency of its 2.5GHz spectrum holdings and will allow for faster mobile data speeds for end users. That’s particularly important since – as we see from social media apps – video consumption is said to become even more pervasive in how we consume mobile data. The new gigabit network means a smoother and more stable user experience when viewing high-quality videos, as Dr. John Saw, Sprint’s CTO, explains:

This demonstration highlights the incredible capacity and potential of Sprint’s 2.5GHz spectrum holdings and our ability to keep meeting customers growing demand for high-speed bandwidth-intensive applications. With Gigabit-class performance our customers will have a great experience using 4K and even 8K TV and applications such as HD Virtual Reality on the Sprint LTE Plus network.

Gigabit LTE is an important foundation for 5G mobile networks and although it has not yet arrived here in the US, it’s actually been around for some time in South Korea: KT launched the world’s first gigabit LTE back in 2015, reaching up to speeds of 1.17Gbps. Other carriers in Korea have followed suit since. While none of these gigabit or “5G” networks are actually 5G, they are certainly a step in the right direction towards what once used to be a fairy tale.

How’s your data speed on your phone? Are you excited about what 5G networks will bring? Let us know by leaving a comment below!