Carrier aggregation promises to open new possibilities to LTE network operators

Do officials at Verizon and AT&T need to be worrying? Not necessarily. While carrier aggregation could allow some new players to enter the mobile broadband market, the massive spectral holdings of these two carrier giants should allow them to offer services that other U.S. operators will have a difficult time matching, if they are able to leverage carrier aggregation efficiently.

In addition, the hardware realities associated with a potential throughputs enabled by carrier aggregation could mean that it could be a couple of years before handheld devices that would be able to take advantage of carrier aggregation can reach the market, Hartley said. One very early demonstration of FDD carrier aggregation that Hartley witnessed in October illustrates just one of the challenges that handset makers face in trying to develop a smartphone that could truly leverage carrier aggregation.

“They had a demonstration running all day, and they had routers plugged into the main electricity,” he said. “They had to change them every 90 minutes to keep them from overheating. It gives you an idea, if that were in your hand [as a smartphone or other handheld device] what the battery would be doing.”

Given this and other component/interference engineering challenges, some of the earliest end-user devices to leverage carrier aggregation likely will be personal Wi-Fi hotspots, USB modems or vehicular modems, Hartley said.

If carrier aggregation develops, the capability could create additional partnering opportunities for public safety and FirstNet during the next several years. Meanwhile, in the long term—decades and decades down the road—one can’t help but wonder whether the carrier-aggregation concept eventually might allow public safety to leverage its disparate spectrum holdings in a cohesive manner, be it in an LTE or LMR platform.