Zain KSA and Nokia have partnered to deploy LTE-Advanced three component carrier aggregation technology that will boost the operator’s data speeds to 187.5 Mbps across its network.
The network, launched in the high-profile business and residential districts of Jeddah, will move the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's second largest city a step forward to becoming a smart city.
Carrier aggregation is a technique widely used in LTE-Advanced standards. It allows operators to bond together non-contiguous bands of spectrum to create wider channels, resulting in faster LTE speeds.
The implementation of three component carrier aggregation in the FDD-LTE band (FDD-LTE 3CC) concludes an extensive commercial network trial by Nokia and Zain. As a result, Zain will be able to increase data speeds at the cell edge - close to neighbouring cells, where interference and signal loss can impact the subscriber experience - to meet the evolving demand from its customers, and in turn support the growth of its business and customer base. Zain customers will be able to enjoy enhanced quality of experience when downloading HD video or sharing images at events where network congestion can occur due to high demand for data access.
The higher speeds are already available in several high-traffic areas of Jeddah, allowing users of Category 6 (CAT 6) capable devices to benefit from available and upcoming data intensive services, such as virtual reality.
