France s Orange has been given permission by the regulator to carry out LTE A trials on its network
The trial, which will be conducted in Bordeaux in a very densely populated urban environment, will allow Orange to test the performance of a network using this technology, including in mobile situations, and to identify the possible benefits to future services that will be sold to customers.
Thanks to a 2x20 MHz channel in the 2.6 GHz band, aggregated with an identical channel in the 3.5 GHz band, the LTE Advanced system should be capable of supplying a maximum theoretical throughput of 300 Mbits/s, which is double the maximum theoretical speed that operators' 4G networks can achieve today.
This trial is the first of its kind to be authorised in France.
The regulator, Arcep said that it will welcome requests from the other mobile networks as well.