Source: Qualcomm
300 Mbps downlink speed has been demonstrated via MWC14 using Samsung Galaxy Note3 prototype and it is LTE Advanced(a.k.a LTE-A) Category 6 with carrier aggregation(a.k.a CA).
This is an affirmative step forward to real LTE-A speed and will accelerate mobile internet speed race more not only for customers but also operators in their services.
| 3GPP release | User equipment category | Maximum L1 datarate downlink | Maximum number of DL MIMO layers | Maximum L1 datarate uplink |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Release 8 | Category 1 | 10.3 Mbit/s | 1 | 5.2 Mbit/s |
| Release 8 | Category 2 | 51.0 Mbit/s | 2 | 25.5 Mbit/s |
| Release 8 | Category 3 | 102.0 Mbit/s | 2 | 51.0 Mbit/s |
| Release 8 | Category 4 | 150.8 Mbit/s | 2 | 51.0 Mbit/s |
| Release 8 | Category 5 | 299.6 Mbit/s | 4 | 75.4 Mbit/s |
| Release 10 | Category 6 | 301.5 Mbit/s | 2 or 4 | 51.0 Mbit/s |
| Release 10 | Category 7 | 301.5 Mbit/s | 2 or 4 | 102.0 Mbit/s |
| Release 10 | Category 8 | 2,998.6 Mbit/s | 8 | 1,497.8 Mbit/s |
Source: Wikipedia and 3GPP
Whenever Apple launches new iPhone series, Apple has showed conservative stance to introduce modem chipset and has sticked to already-stable and evaluated modems only but now it remains to be seen how Apple will move.
Category 6 is not the long term future but just will be short term planned service and technology for us. In this year, Nokia Solutions and Networks(now known as Nokia Networks), Broadcom and Finnish carrier Elisa said they have demonstrated LTE Advanced carrier aggregation Category 6 data rates of 300 Mbps on a live commercial network.
Qualcomm will roll out 2 types of chipset solutions like one-chip Snapdragon integrates modem and discrete type modem like MDM9x35 series.
Anyhow new iPhone is expected to introduce 2nd generation of 64 bit processor A8 and faster internet modem between MDM9x25 for cat4 and MDM9x35 for cat6.
Image source: movilzona
If Apple is interested in engaging in internet speed contest, MDM9x35 will not be a bad challenge for them.
As a bonus, MDM9635M will allegedly support LTE-A category 7 as well for 100 Mbps uplink speed that is double speed of legacy modems.
Source: MyDrivers.com
