AT&T's All-Fiber GigaPower Service Comes to Dallas / Fort Worth

AT&T is preparing to launch its all fiber-based, GigaPower service featuring symmetrical upload and download broadband speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second in the Dallas metroplex.

The first rollouts will occur in Highland Park and University Park with gigabit speed.  AT&T confirmed that other parts of Dallas and surrounding cities will launch this summer, initially with speeds up to 100 Mbps but eligible for upgrades to full gigabit by the end of 2014.  These cities include Allen, Fairview, Irving, and McKinney. The same 100 Mbps plan is on tap for Fort Worth and the nearby communities of Arlington, Euless, Granbury, North Richland Hills, Weatherford, and Willow Park.

“We’re proud to be the first to offer ultra high-speeds to local consumers and employers in Dallas, Fort Worth, and surrounding cities,” said Dave Nichols, president, AT&T Texas. “As we roll out these ultra-fast speeds beginning this summer, the AT&T GigaPower network will help encourage economic development in the area by facilitating a new wave of innovation through enhanced opportunities for education, health, research, and small business growth.”

http://www.att.com/att/gigapowercities/

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Telstra Tests 700 MHz LTE with 20 MHz Channel in Perth

Telstra will conduct commercial trials using 20MHz of the 700MHz spectrum band at six locations around Australia, including Perth,  ahead of rolling out more 4G 700MHz services in a range of cities and regional centres from January 2015.

“4G Advanced technology is the next evolution of our 4G service and brings together two spectrum bands - 700MHz and 1800MHz - to serve up ultra-fast data speeds," said Mike Wright, Telstra Group Managing Director Networks. It will be capable of providing customers double the speeds they currently experience on the 4G network, plus better 4G coverage indoors and beyond."

http://www.telstra.com.au/aboutus/media/media-releases/telstra-launches-future-of-4g-in-perth-mildura-griffith-and-mt-isa.xml

• In May 2014, Telstra has demonstrated downlink speeds of 450 Mbps using LTE Advanced Carrier Aggregation across a trial combination of 1800MHz and 2600MHz bands over its live network. Telstra worked with Ericsson to install equipment for two new 4G Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD) channels of 20MHz bandwidth each on the 2600MHz spectrum band (40MHz FDD), aggregated with live 20MHz of 4G on the 1800MHz band. The result was three simultaneous side-by-side paths for the data to travel through to the operational core network. Telstra also used an advanced prototype Cat 9 engineering device that could combine the three channels to achieve these speeds.

• In February 2014, Ericsson and Qualcomm Technologies conducted the first inter-vendor interoperability testing of LTE Category 6, which promises potential speeds of up to 300 Mbps.
  The final stages of testing, which were completed in collaboration with Telstra, was based on ready-to-release versions of Ericsson's L14A software release. Ericsson said its L14A software leverages load balancing for better spectrum efficiency and improved user experience during high-load situations. It supports all bandwidth and frequency combinations for up to 40MHz Carrier Aggregation, providing users with speeds of up to 300 Mbps.  The test also used Qualcomm;s fourth-generation 3G/LTE multimode modem, the Qualcomm Gobi 9x35 chipset.

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