South Korea has been a pioneer when it comes to technology usage and now it is taking a step further in this direction with the launch of 300 Mbps mobile bandwidths. Soon, South Korean residents can enjoy these high-speeds on their mobile phones, thanks to LTE-advanced technology.
LTE-A is a mobile communication standard that is an advanced version of the existing LTE network. It promises to deliver theoretical speeds of 300 Mbps or more, though the real-time speeds are likely to be a lot less due to noise problems and congestion. When thousands of users access the same cell tower, speeds tend to go lower than 300 Mbps. However, this new technology will be twice or even three times faster than the existing networks. It is also likely to be more robust with fewer dropped connections. Further, LTE-A adds more speed to the same spectrum which means the speed will not drop drastically when more people access the same network at the same time.
This breakthrough technology is being tested by telecom providers SK Telecom and LG's U+. Both these companies plan to integrate three bands with carrier aggregation technology to achieve this high speed. Though this aggregation of three-band is not yet standardized globally, this new speed is expected to become operational sometime in 2014 when the companies have tested their technologies to deliver the promised speed.
This effort by the two South Korean mobile companies comes along the lines of a company called CSL in Hong Kong that achieved the test speed of 300 Mbps using existing 20 Mhz LTE bands. In comparison, the Western countries seem to be far behind with no plans to test LTE-A technology anytime soon. Also, cell phone providers are not yet ready for this technology with Samsung being the only exception as this company started putting its efforts towards creating a compatible cell phone since last year.
Edited by
Cassandra Tucker 
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