Bell announced the deployment of 3,800MHz spectrum in select areas of Toronto and Kitchener-Waterloo. In partnership with Samsung, it also successfully tested a form of carrier aggregation using the spectrum.
In a press release, the Montreal-based national carrier said it expects 3,800MHz to make its 5G+ network “even faster and more responsive.” Specifically, Bell said the spectrum could enable peak theoretical download speeds of up to 4Gbps “in select areas.”
Along with the new spectrum deployment, Bell said it partnered with Samsung to successfully test 5 Component Carrier aggregation (5CCA). Carrier aggregation increases the data rate per user by leveraging multiple frequency blocks. In this case, Bell said it was the first carrier in North America to “successfully conduct a 5CCA test on a smartphone over a live production network leveraging 3800 MHz spectrum.”
During the test, Bell said it saw download speeds over 2Gbps.
While that’s all quite impressive, Bell’s 3,800MHz spectrum remains unfortunately limited to areas in Toronto and Kitchener-Waterloo for now. Outside of those regions, Bell’s 5G+ still runs on a 3,500MHz spectrum. But that will shift as Bell and other carriers begin deploying 3,800MHz spectrum to more regions.
Source: Bell
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