Vodafone Portugal First to Use LTE FDD/TDD Carrier Aggregation

Vodafone will be first mobile service to use carrier aggregation across Long Term Evolution 4G FDD/TDD networks, starting with the Vodafone network in Portugal.

The technology is powered by Ericsson and Qualcomm Technologies.

Adding TDD to the already installed FDD network significantly enhances the total downlink data capacity. In addition, FDD/TDD carrier aggregation extends the app coverage of the TDD layer by up to 230 percent.

Greater capacity and coverage will be needed in the short term as mobile traffic demand is expected to grow nine times by 2020, according to Ericsson Mobility Report projections (June, 2015).

Using only a software update to Ericsson baseband hardware already operating in the network, Ericsson's Networks Software 15B release enables simultaneous operation of LTE FDD and TDD.

Vodafone's current deployment for the trial in its commercial network in Portugal uses 15 MHz of band 3 (FDD 1800) and 20 MHz of band 38 (TDD 2600) and tests are supported by the Qualcomm®Snapdragon(TM) 810 processor with X10 LTE running in a device.