Nokia and SK Telecom have reached a breakthrough LTE throughput of 3.78 Gbps by combining TDD and FDD spectrum. The trial used ten distinct frequency carriers across a total of 200 MHz of bandwidth, leveraging Nokia’s Single RAN approach. This solution pairs the Flexi Multiradio 10 base station with carrier-aggregation software to unify TDD and FDD LTE bands and enable advanced LTE MIMO (multiple input, multiple output) capabilities.
Earlier this year, Nokia and the US operator Sprint demonstrated TDD/FDD aggregation across several bands, achieving peak speeds of 2.6 Gbps and showing a 50–100% throughput uplift depending on available spectrum. The current 3.78 Gbps result—approaching 4 Gbps—sets a world record for LTE. At that speed, a mobile user could download a 5 GB high-definition movie in roughly 11 seconds, illustrating the transformative potential for high-bandwidth mobile services.
Zhang Qi, Vice President of TD-LTE at Nokia, commented that the record underscores Nokia’s leadership in TD-LTE throughput. He emphasized that operators can rely on Nokia’s ability to meet growing demands not only for faster downloads but also for improved upload performance.
Alex Jinsung Choi, Executive Vice President and Head of the ICT R&D Division at SK Telecom, said the achievement reflects the long-term collaboration between SK Telecom and Nokia to exploit TDD–FDD convergence. He noted it as evidence of SK Telecom’s continued commitment to delivering faster connections and better quality for subscribers using advanced data services.
By comparison, average 4G speeds in the UK are around 20 Mbps. Nokia and SK Telecom’s trial speeds are therefore nearly 200 times faster than typical consumer experience today. Such advances are increasingly necessary as demand for video streaming and other data-heavy applications continues to grow. Aggregating TDD and FDD spectrum significantly expands capacity for both downlink and uplink traffic, benefiting applications that require high throughput and low latency.
Since divesting its handset business to Microsoft in a $7.2 billion transaction, Nokia has concentrated on network infrastructure and solutions. As part of that strategic shift, the company has focused investment and research into radio access network technologies, software-driven solutions, and multi-band aggregation techniques to support next-generation mobile broadband.
This milestone demonstrates how combining flexible base stations, sophisticated software, and carrier aggregation can dramatically boost mobile network performance. The result is a clearer path toward delivering multi-gigabit mobile services on existing LTE technology, while informing development toward future 5G deployments that will further expand capacity and efficiency.
What are your thoughts on this record-breaking LTE advancement from Nokia and SK Telecom? Share your views in the comments.