Alcatel-Lucent has successfully completed a data call by using the Long-Term Evolution (LTE) technology in the 800-MHz frequency band, reports Telecompaper. The first of its kind in the world, according to the vendor, the call was completed in October at Alcatel-Lucent's LTE end-to-end solution centre in Stuttgart, Germany. The test involved transmitting high-definition video streaming by using the company's commercial infrastructure platforms and prototype mobile devices.
Significance: LTE800-based solutions basically allow deployments of the technology by using the digital dividend, the frequency range left vacant when analogue TV broadcasts are made digital. As such, they enable the carriers to extend their mobile broadband coverage outside cities, as well as to improve the indoor coverage across the network, if compared to the typical LTE band of 2.6 GHz. Germany is currently serving as something of a hub for the related trials, mostly because its telecoms regulator BNA will allocated the relevant frequencies in the first half of the next year.
