Telstra, Ericsson, Qualcomm demo 4×4 MIMO
Australia’s largest operator Telstra and Ericsson demoed 4×4 MIMO, supporting peak downlink data speeds of up to 380Mb/s.

The live demo used Ericsson’s Networks Software 16B for LTE and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X12 LTE modem, which supports 4×4 spatial multiplexing combined with 256 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM).

Smartphones are expected to start supporting 4×4 MIMO with 256 QAM next year, Ericsson said.

Mike Wright, Telstra’s managing director for networks, said it initially demonstrated 1Gb/s capability in an end-to-end network on 5 November, and the combination of 4×4 MIMO with 256 QAM is the next step in device evolution.

Half of Vietnamese have internet access
More than half of Vietnam’s population (52 per cent) had internet access at the end of November, with 40 per cent, or 36.1 million, connecting via mobile broadband, according to a report from the Vietnam Telecommunications Authority (VTA).

Mobile connections in Vietnam fell 13 per cent this year to 120.6 million, Viet Nam News reported. The VTA said the country’s SIM penetration rate fell to 133 per cent from 140 per cent in 2014.

Australia moves to simplify IoT access to spectrum
The Australian Communications and Media Authority has proposed changing regulations to make it easier for Internet of Things (IoT) players to access spectrum.

Many current generation machine-to-machine (M2M) and IoT devices access spectrum via the ACMA’s class licensing regime, which is similar to a “spectrum commons”.

The proposed changes will remove a technical barrier to the operation of narrowband low-power wireless networks in the Radiocommunications (Low Interference Potential Devices) Class Licence in the 900MHz, 2.4GHz band and 5.8GHz bands.

“The changes should encourage innovations in the M2M and IoT spaces,” said ACMA chairman Chris Chapman. “The proposals are part of our work in looking at Australia’s state of readiness for IoT and identifying areas where the ACMA can further assist IoT developments.”

Chunghwa targets 58% 4G penetration in 2016
Taiwan’s largest operator Chunghwa Telecom aims to add two million 4G users next year, taking its total to 6.4 million or about 58 per cent of its total connections.

The operator has a 33 per cent market share and almost 11 million mobile connections, according to GSMA Intelligence. At the end of this year it expects to have 4.4 million 4G users, or 41 per cent of the country’s total.