Hong Kong, 22 March 2018 – 3 Hong Kong, the mobile arm of Hutchison Telecommunications Hong Kong Holdings Limited (HTHKH; stock code: 215), today took its existing 4.5G service a major step closer to the new 5G era by announcing official activation of 5CC (Component Carrier) carrier aggregation (CA) network technology.
This combines spectrum across 3 Hong Kong’s 900MHz, 1800MHz, 2100MHz, 2300MHz and 2600MHz bands. Maximum speed achieved in a network trial reached up to 1.1 Gbps following the move, together with deployment of advanced technologies such as 4×4 MIMO (Multi-Input Multi-Output), Massive MIMO and 256QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation).
Users downloading a two-hour Netflix movie, 5GB game file or 50GB photo album from Google Drive via 5CC at a maximum network speed of 1.1 Gbps will do more than seven times faster than when downloading via 1CC at a maximum speed of 150 Mbps. The everyday examples in the table below demonstrate how 5CC advanced technology offers customers a significantly better overall telecommunications experience.
3 Hong Kong had already completed re-farming of the 2100 MHz spectrum band to provide 4.5G service and became the only local operator to provide 4.5G service simultaneously via spectrum across five different bands.
Both 3 Hong Kong’s network speed and coverage were enhanced and spectrum efficiency fully utilised following today’s official activation of 5CC CA network technology. The move also coincides with launch of the Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+, which are the first to be compatible with 5CC and work in conjunction with the new technology to deliver a smooth and high-speed mobile experience.