Telstra, Ericsson, Qualcomm and NETGEAR have announced a commercial launch of Gigabit LTE network and device. Telstra confirmed at the "Gigabit LTE Experience" event in Sydney today that their Gigabit LTE service has launched in select state capital city CBDs, with more to follow.

The Gigabit LTE NETGEAR device, Nighthawk M1, will first be made available to consumers in Australia in late February, 2017. This launch extends Telstra's current network download speed to Gigabit speeds (1Gbps) whilst doubling upload peak speed (~150Mbps). Telstra had launched 600Mbps download speeds in Sept 2015 earlier.

Gigabit LTE is enabled by LTE Advanced features including 4x4 MIMO, 3CA (Three Carrier Aggregation) and higher order modulation (256QAM). On the uplink, Telstra's new network capability uses 64QAM and 2CA (Two Carrier Aggregation) for a peak upload speed of up to 150Mbps. These new features and capabilities are all important steps as Telstra evolves its network towards 5G.

In addition, the utilization of 4x4 MIMO within the new NETGEAR Nighthawk M1 Mobile Router (MR1100) Gigabit device, equipped with the Qualcomm® Snapdragon(TM)  X16 LTE modem, allows 4-way receive diversity. The 4-way receive diversity capability works to support improved data throughput throughout all areas of the LTE network including both the Gigabit enabled areas and as well as the other remaining LTE network areas.

Gigabit LTE delivers a peak physical layer download speed of ~979Mbps and uplink 2 CA delivers a peak uplink physical layer speed of ~150Mbps and requires a suitable device (e.g. Cat16). Actual day to day speeds experienced by users depend on network conditions and the user's application.