South Korea’s leading operator SK Telecom (SKT) has demoed a data download speed of 600Mb/s using Nokia Networks’ 4X4 MIMO technology combined with carrier aggregation (CA).

By using four transmit antennas and four receive antennas to link a mobile device and a base station, the technology is able to double download speeds compared to typical 2X2 MIMO LTE, which has two transmit and two receive antennas.

When applied to the current LTE systems with two transmit and two receive antennas, the technology can double the maximum downlink speed of LTE using 10MHz bandwidth from 75Mb/s to 150 Mb/s, the companies claimed.

To reach the 600Mb/s LTE-Advanced data speed, SKT and Nokia Networks first achieved the 300Mb/s data rate using 4X4 MIMO on a 20MHz block of spectrum. They then combined two of these LTE bandwidths using CA to hit the 600Mb/s rate.

Since a mobile device with four antennas and CA capability has not been developed, the two companies used a mobile device simulator made by Aeroflex to measure the data speeds during the demonstration.

The companies said the demonstration is important because MIMO is a key technology needed to achieve early commercialisation of supposed ‘5G’ networks.

Park Jin-hyo, the head of SKT’s Network Technology R&D Centre, said the demonstration “not only strengthens our competitiveness in LTE-A, but also marks another important milestone in our journey towards achieving the next-generation network.”

The demonstration will be showcased at Mobile World Congress next week.

SKT and Samsung yesterday said they will demonstrate a record mobile transmission rate of 7.55Gb/s using ‘3D beamforming’ antenna technology at Mobile World Congress.