Alcatel-Lucent and Telefonica have announced that they have successfully performed the first LTE call in Latin America using the 700 MHz frequency band “ which is particularly well suited to delivering mobile broadband Internet services throughout the region.

According to Alcatel-Lucent blog, Alcatel-Lucent and Telefonica have demonstrated LTEs performance in the 700 MHz frequency band in real-world network conditions, achieving good in-building coverage. Additionally, LTE™s data upload and download capabilities in this band were tested, reaching speeds 20 times faster than the average in HSPA.

The tests performed, and the ones to come using commercial devices to assess the solution™s user experience, are part of Telefonica's LTE field pilot in Lima, Peru “ where the service provider is analyzing LTE's coverage capabilities as well as its capacity to support the delivery of new mobile applications.

Earlier this year, Alcatel-Lucent had announced successful first 4G calls in the framework of the LTE lab tests with Telefonica in Latin America(see Alcatel-Lucent successfully makes first 4G LTE calls with Telefonica in Latin America). Now tests are being done in a trial network in the field.

In this pilot, Telefonica is evaluating LTE's advanced quality of service (QoS) and a range of technical features such as self-organising networks (SON) capabilities. As a matter of fact, Telefonica is testing LTE in both the 2.6 GHz and 700 Mhz frequency bands.