Telstra, Ericsson, Qualcomm Technologies Inc. and NETGEAR announce the first commercial Gigabit LTE network and device.

Telstra confirmed at the "Gigabit LTE Experience" event in Sydney today that their Gigabit LTE service has launched in select state capital city CBDs, with more to follow.

The Gigabit LTE NETGEAR device, Nighthawk M1, will first be made available in Australia in late February, 2017. Gigabit performance will improve access to high-quality video streaming, and facilitate emerging mobile virtual reality applications and experiences, and is a key step towards 5G.

In addition to Gigabit LTE speeds on the downlink, Telstra's new network capability also delivers up to double the previous uplink speeds, meaning uploading content to social media, the cloud or business applications will be much faster. Gigabit LTE is enabled by LTE Advanced features including 4x4 MIMO, 3CA (Three Carrier Aggregation) and higher order modulation (256QAM). On the uplink, Telstra's new network capability uses 64QAM and 2CA (Two Carrier Aggregation) for a peak upload speed of up to 150Mbps. These new features and capabilities are all important steps as Telstra evolves its network towards 5G. Gigabit LTE is not only about high peak speeds but also delivers more network capacity which benefits all users. A Gigabit LTE mobile device gets the job done faster with the ability to allow more network resources to be available for other users. In addition, the utilization of 4x4 MIMO within the new NETGEAR Nighthawk M1 Mobile Router (MR1100) Gigabit device, equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon X16 LTE modem, allows 4-way receive diversity. The 4-way receive diversity capability works to support improved data throughput throughout all areas of the LTE network including both the Gigabit enabled areas and as well as the other remaining LTE network areas.