Indian telecommunications company Airtel announced today the successful completion of 5G trials that combine TDD (Time Division Duplex) and FDD (Frequency Division Duplex) mid-band spectrum to enhance uplink performance. Conducted at Airtel’s tech lab in partnership with MediaTek and Nokia, the trial achieved uplink speeds of 300 Mbps, setting a new benchmark for 5G network capabilities, Airtel said in an official release on Monday.
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Combining TDD and FDD Spectrum
The company stated that by aggregating the frequency bands of 3.5 GHz (n78) and 2.1 GHz (n1), the trial demonstrated significant improvements in uplink speeds, which are crucial for high-demand applications like video conferencing, live streaming, and large file uploads. This UL Tx switching approach dynamically switches uplink transmission across TDD and FDD spectrums, enhancing network efficiency and user experience.
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Bharti Airtel said, “At Airtel, continuous innovation remains the bedrock of all our product and service offerings. This trial not only stands as a testament to our philosophy of enhancing our state-of-the-art network infrastructure and delivering an unmatched 5G user experience but will also greatly enhance our network’s uplink performance, resulting in faster data speeds and improved connectivity.”
Collaborative Efforts
Commenting on the achievement, Nokia said, “Uplink Tx switching will pave the way for superior 5G networks, enabling seamless data transfer in mobile devices and driving demand for data-intensive applications like XR.”
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For this advanced trial, Airtel used equipment from Nokia’s 5G AirScale radio portfolio, while MediaTek provided its Dimensity 5G mobile platform as the user equipment. The joint statement noted that the trials achieved the highest uplink speed on a 5G network with Advanced Uplink Functionality.
