British telecommunications company BT Group announced today that it has successfully aggregated 5G Standalone (SA) spectrum using 5CC Carrier Aggregation (5CC CA) with Nokia and Qualcomm. The test, which used a device powered by a Snapdragon 5G-RF System Modem from Qualcomm Technologies, makes BT Group the first European operator to achieve the 5G 5CC Carrier Aggregation milestone, according to the official release.
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Future 5G Performance
BT Group said this achievement comes ahead of the launch of the EE 5G SA network planned for later this year. The network will also have the capability to leverage a low-frequency sixth carrier to provide a superior experience in more places, including indoors.
In 2023, BT Group tested 4CC CA in 5G SA downlink with concurrent 2CC CA in 5G SA uplink. Today's announcement is the next milestone in further enhancing performance in connections from the device to the network by increasing throughput and capacity, the company said.
Field Tests and Results
The tests were conducted in the field on live network spectrum at Adastral Park, BT Group's headquarters for R&D, using Nokia's 5G AirScale portfolio and a device powered by a Snapdragon 5G Modem-RF System from Qualcomm Technologies.
The test, which included combining three FDD and two TDD carriers with a total bandwidth of 150 MHz, delivered greater capacity and downlink speeds. Specifically, downlink speeds of 1.85 Gbps were reached using three FDD carriers NR2600 (30 MHz), NR2100 (20 MHz), and NR1800 (20 MHz) aggregated with two TDD carriers NR3600 (40+40 MHz).
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BT Group said: "This is particularly important as more and more devices come to market with 5CC CA capabilities. We are focused on maximising our spectrum assets to deliver the very best experience to our customers with that in mind."
