Orange Poland and T-Mobile Poland have started spectrum refarming within their JV Networks! joint venture. They plan to increase the 2x40 MHz blocks dedicated to LTE with at least 2x45 MHz, reported Telko.in. In addition, the operators plan to launch four-carrier aggregation for LTE-A.
Orange will test four-carrier aggregation on the bands LTE 800, 1800, 2100 and 2600 MHz, and additionally apply 256 QAM on three base stations in Blonie and one in Poznan. The upgrade should allow speeds up to 438 Mbps. Orange is testing the impact of LTE 2100 on 3G, and of LTE 1800 with the block 2x10 MHz on 2G.
T-Mobile continues gradually phasing out 2G services in the 800 MHz band. Both operators have been reducing the spectrum in the 2100 MHz band dedicated to 3G services. In the 900 MHz band, 3G services are being migrated to a lower carrier.
Both operators have allocated 2x10 MHz for LTE 2100. The bands 800 MHz and 2600 MHz remain untouched by the changes, and both operators offer here LTE with a 2x45 MHz block. In LTE-A, the operators replace the three-carrier aggregation with four-carrier aggregation.
After T-Mobile decommissions 2G completely, it can use 2x15 MHz for LTE 1800.
Earlier Rzeczpospolitą reported that Orange has returned to negotiations with Polkomtel on the purchase of part of the spectrum in the 1800 MHz band held by Polkomtel's parent company Cyfrowy Polsat. The subject of the negotiations is allegedly not only the 2.4 MHz block separating the resources of T-Mobile and Orange, which Orange wanted to buy in the years 2013-2014. Additional spectrum would allow Orange to deploy LTE 1800 over up to 2x20 MHz, if the contract of September 2013 were not cancelled.
