Verizon teamed with Samsung and MediaTek to demonstrate 5G downlink speeds of 5.5Gb/s in a lab environment using six-component carrier aggregation (6CA) on sub-6GHz spectrum.

The trial used 350MHz of PCS, 850MHz, AWS, CBRS and C-Band spectrum to run data through a Samsung standalone (SA) 5G core.

It also uses Samsung’s virtualised RAN components with MediaTek’s connectivity platform.

Carrier aggregation enables operators to combine multiple 5G channels of both FDD and TDD spectrum bands to deliver faster speeds and improved performance.

Verizon stated its network virtualisation efforts are key for providing faster data speeds and lower latency because they enable greater flexibility for resource allocation.

Operators are drilling down on carrier aggregation to provide improved efficiency across data sessions, as traffic on mobile networks is expected to grow to more than 5,400 exabytes by 2030, according to GSMA Intelligence.

Verizon’s US rivals EchoStar,  AT&T and T-Mobile US are also developing their own carrier aggregation approaches.