Ericsson-Orange LTE-Advanced FDD Trial Successful - Analyst Blog

Leading communications solutions provider Ericsson (ERIC) in collaboration with Orange (ORAN) declared the successful testing of 3.4-3.6 GHz (3.5 GHz) frequencies in Bordeaux, France. This is the world's first live LTE-Advanced FDD trial in 3.4-3.6 GHz band and was authorized by the French regulator ARCEP.

The trial was conducted in October-November 2014, on Orange's network in Bordeaux with the aid of pre-commercial equipment of Ericsson. The move was primarily aimed at testing the data speeds, coverage and FDD carrier aggregation, using the 3.4-3.6 GHz (3.5 GHz) frequencies, in Europe.

Ericsson and Orange have installed new antennas supporting the 3.5 GHz band at the Le Ponant and Meriadeck sites in Bordeaux, for the trial. They executed the first phase of the trial at the Orange Labs in Paris and achieved the speed of 300 Mbps, with the usage of 3.5 GHz band in aggregation with the 2.6 GHz band. The second phase of this trial, which was based on pre-commercial FDD 3.5 GHz radio base station equipment, was performed on the live mobile network of Orange.

Both the trial phases were successful and confirmed that the FDD access scheme shows potential for the 3.5GHz band in providing additional capacity for sophisticated services and applications to mobile operators. Notably, this band could be used in stand-alone or aggregation mode for boosting mobile broadband users' experience in urban and suburban regions of Europe. In our view, successful completion of this trial is a key achievement for Ericsson and will strengthen the company's customer base going forward.

As a matter of fact, Ericsson has been working towards enhancing its position in the industry through such trials. Most recently, the company along with Entel stated the successful completion of the first live test of APT700 band in Latin America (read more: Ericsson, Entel's Trial of APT700 Network Band Successful).

Ericsson currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked companies in the industry include InterDigital, Inc. (IDCC) and ViaSat Inc. (VSAT). Both stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).