Regional US carrier C-Spire has replaced its old 4G hardware with new LTE basestations that are "5G ready".

Mississippi-based C-Spire has spent much of the year replacing "old Alcatel gear" with over 1,200 Nokia AirScale basestations, according to a spokesperson at C-Spire.

As a result, users are experiencing a 15-20% increase in mobile speeds over the network, the company says.

"We're using carrier aggregation technology, which brings together multiple frequency bands for improved speed and spectral efficiency, and other software and hardware improvements to achieve better speeds and pave the way for Voice over LTE or high-definition mobile voice service," Alan Jones, SVP of access and deployment for C Spire, said in a statement.

The network is using 700MHz, 1900MHz and 2500MHz frequencies (Band 12, 25 and 41) for LTE-based mobile broadband services: It hasn't decided yet which sub-6GHz frequencies will be used for 5G mobile broadband services.

Similarly, decisions are still being made on what Internet of Things and voice-over-LTE software will be used: The basestations are "capable," the spokesperson says.

C-Spire has already rolled out a 120Mbit/s pre-standard fixed wireless access (FWA) 5G service in Mississippi and a 750Mbit/s FWA service in the 84-home Landon Place subdivision in Gulfport, Miss.

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— Dan Jones, Mobile Editor, Light Reading