Last summer began opening 4G service in our country. Yoigo was the first to announce it, but Vodafone went ahead by gradually inaugurating the network for its clients in different Spanish cities. Today we know that the strategy of the operator of British origin seeks to take a step forward by resorting to the Advanced LTE system (LTE-A). The red company has announced that it has started the testing phase of this fourth generation connection standard, which is capable of achieving transfer rates of up to 300 Mbps using a compatible device.
In practice, Vodafone has reported that the experiments it is carrying out have yielded satisfactory results, achieving download speeds that exceed 280 Mbps, reaching eventual peaks of 297 Mbps. Its commercial LTE network reaches levels of 150 Mbps, although in practice the service operates at maximum rates of about 90 Mbps, achieving very low latency records "" latency time is one of the advantages of 4G connections "".
At the moment, the operator does not advance deadlines for the opening of the Advanced LTE service as part of its commercial offer. Today's experience is limited to its experimental phase, so that laboratory tests are being carried out in the AZCA complex and in the Nuevos Ministerios area of Madrid. The idea is that the tests will soon be extended to other areas of Madrid, as well as to Barcelona, so that coverage is progressively expanded in order to meet the possible demand for this service in the future.
In testing, Vodafone is using the 1,800 and 2,600 MHz frequency bands, which it currently uses for data traffic on its 4G network. These bands have been assumed from the beginning as the necessary solution to inaugurate the service, although both the red operator and the rest of the telephone companies consider it important that the regulator release the 800 MHz network so that it is used for channeling data from the LTE service. The reason for this is that said band contemplates greater power in the connections, also providing more stability. At this time, this frequency is used for DTT radio transmissions, but it will not be released, in theory, until next year.
At this moment there are five operators that offer 4G connections to their customers. In addition to Vodafone, Yoigo and Orange have their own network. Both have shared their infrastructures with other companies. Movistar, for example, agreed on a convergence plan with Yoigo, which benefits from the blue operator's ADSL and fiber optic services to be able to offer comprehensive packages, while the latter is fed by the LTE network of the company, which is majority owned by the company. Swedish TeliaSonera. Orange, for its part, shares its bands with AmenaAlthough more than an agreement, in this case we would speak of an enrichment in the offer of the virtual mobile operator (OMV) of the French firm.
