MOSCOW, Russia - Nokia and MTS have deployed FDD-TDD carrier aggregation technology on MTS's commercial LTE network in Moscow to increase network coverage and capacity and improve the customer experience as data demand continues to rise with 5G on the horizon.

As people and machines place greater demands on mobile networks, operators such as MTS are looking to utilise existing spectrum and radio resources more efficiently. Carrier aggregation - a technique used in LTE-Advanced standards - allows non-contiguous bands of spectrum to be bonded to create wider channels, resulting in faster LTE speeds and the delivery of new services.

Thanks to Nokia completing the first commercial deployment of FDD-TDD carrier aggregation in Russia, in a business district of Moscow, MTS' subscribers can now experience data speeds of up to 187 Mbps, compared to peak speeds of 75 Mbps over FDD-LTE in the 10 MHz band and 112 Mbps over TD-LTE. The deployment also improves on the service quality of TD-LTE by enhancing service quality inside buildings.

Nokia and MTS have also conducted a demonstration of FDD-LTE three component carrier aggregation on the network in Moscow, with a plan to implement the technology in the future. Nokia and MTS continue to test and deploy LTE-Advanced, LTE-Advanced Pro and 5G technologies to enable a smooth evolution to 5G networks.

Nokia, working within the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), has driven FDD-TDD carrier aggregation for the 1800 MHz and 2600 MHz bands in the recently finalized 3GPP Release 13 standard of LTE-Advanced Pro, allowing operators to fully leverage their spectrum resources in these frequency bands.

Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK)