In a lab trial, Verizon, Ericsson and Qualcomm Technologies set an LTE record download data rate of 1.07 Gbps peak. The record was achieved by combining 12 simultaneous LTE streams with three cell carrier aggregation, 20 MHz FDD carriers, 4x4 MIMO and 256-QAM per carrier.

Ericsson contributed the infrastructure radio system and LTE software, and Qualcomm provided a mobile test device based on the Snapdragon X20 LTE modem, the first announced modem to support Category 18 LTE speeds.

Mike Finley, senior vice president and president of Qualcomm North America, said, “Our work with Verizon and Ericsson has allowed us to be first in surpassing the gigabit speed barrier with our Snapdragon X20 LTE modem. This is an important milestone on the path to 5G that will allow for better average speeds for all users.”

Nicola Palmer, the chief network officer at Verizon Wireless, said, “As technology leaders, Verizon continues to drive innovation for our customers. Today’s achievement shows once again that while Verizon deploys the most advanced technologies to our customers in the real world environment, we are always looking ahead to what customers will need tomorrow.”

Verizon recently announced a field trial of license assisted access (LAA) technology that achieved 953 Mbps download data rate. LAA taps the unlicensed, 5 GHz Wi-Fi band to add bandwidth to increase data rates.