M1, Huawei demonstrates Southeast Asia's fastest upload, download mobile speeds

SINGAPORE - Huawei and Singapore's telecom operator M1 Limited (M1) said on Friday that they have successfully achieved 4G peak download speeds of more than 1 gigabytes per second (Gbps), and peak upload speeds in excess of 130 megabytes per second (Mbps).

This is the first time Huawei and an operator have achieved such a high combined download and upload speed. Current LTE Cat 9 devices, the most advanced 4G devices available commercially at the moment, support download speeds of up to 450 Mbps and upload speeds of up to 50 Mbps.

The trial, performed in M1's Long Term Evolution (LTE) Advanced test lab, is conducted using existing commercial hardware infrastructure supplied by Huawei and a prototype Cat 14 device.

The trial was made possible through the innovative integration of four advanced network technologies: 3CC (three component carrier) aggregation, 4x4 MIMO (Multiple-Input Multiple-Output), Higher Order Modulation 256 QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) and 2CC uplink carrier aggregation.

"Through technology innovation, we can further stretch the capability of current 4G technology, prior to the advent of 5G technology, to achieve an incredible peak download speed of more than 1 Gbps," said Denis Seek, Chief Technical Officer, M1.

"The successful trial marks the beginning of 4.5G era in Singapore, demonstrating Huawei and M1's continual innovation in delivering the benefits of the latest mobile technology advances to Singapore consumers, for instance, in enabling machine-to-machine connections and improving HD video experience," said Wang Jun, President of LTE Networks, Huawei Technologies Co Ltd.