3 Hong Kong, the mobile arm of Hutchison Telecommunications Hong Kong Holdings Limited and Huawei announced activation of the five components of carrier aggregation (5CC CA) technology this month to coincide with launch of the Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+, the first handsets to support 5CC CA technology. This advanced cross-spectrum approach amounts to a significant milestone in 4.5G technology and heralds the next phase of the 5G era.
The two companies also announced that re-farming of the 2100MHz band of spectrum has been completed to facilitate provision of 4.5G service. This makes 3 Hong Kong the only local operator to provide 4.5G service simultaneously across five different bands of spectrum.
3 Hong Kong said it is committed to re-farming spectrum to maximize spectrum efficiency. Re-farming of the 2100MHz band was completed recently to enhance 4.5G network capacity and coverage. This helps satisfy ever-increasing demand for data services. 3 Hong Kong is now the only local operator to provide 4.5G service via spectrum across the 900MHz, 1800MHz, 2100MHz, 2300MHz and 2600MHz bands.
In addition, following completion of re-farming of the 2100MHZ spectrum band, 3 Hong Kong is ready to deploy 5CC CA technology this month to coincide with launch of the Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+, the first smartphones to support 5CC CA technology. The rich functionality of these handsets includes Super Slow-mo video shooting, low-light camera and AR Emoji features.
3 Hong Kong collaborated with Huawei in deployment of 5CC technology last year. In order to provide customers with even smoother service, network technologies such as 4×4 MIMO (Multi-Input Multi-Output), Massive MIMO and 256QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) were deployed, while five different bands of spectrum were aggregated to boost end-user throughput and ensure an ultra-fast and stable mobile broadband service experience.
“3 Hong Kong is committed to the deployment of advanced technologies,” said HTHKH Executive Director and CEO Cliff Woo Chiu-man. “Following completion of an NB-IoT network extending throughout Hong Kong last quarter, we activated all bands of spectrum to provide 4.5G service this quarter, coupled with soon-to-be-activated 5CC CA technology – all to maximize spectrum efficiency.”
He added: “We are also working on a 5G development framework, while conducting research and trials in respect of various technology solutions. We aim to provide 5G service promptly, as soon as spectrum allocation and technology specification become available.”