T-Mobile US, in collaboration with Ericsson and Qualcomm, has achieved a remarkable accomplishment in 5G technology. On its live production 5G network, the company successfully conducted the world's first six-channel aggregation (6CA) call using sub-6GHz spectrum.
In order to create "an effective 245MHz of aggregated 5G channels" in the test and achieve download speeds of above 3.6Gb/s, the operator merged six 5G channels of mid-band spectrum, which included two channels of 2.5GHz, two channels of PCS spectrum, and two channels of AWS spectrum.
Carrier aggregation allows operators to combine multiple 5G channels, or carriers, to deliver faster speeds and better performance.
The operator did not specify when it would fully deploy 6CA, but Ulf Ewaldsson, president of technology at T-Mobile, stated in the US it’s “the only mobile provider serving tens of millions of customers to unleash new capabilities like 5G carrier aggregation nationwide."
After deploying 2CA, the operator announced in 2023 that four-carrier aggregation was now operational in its network.
