Industry forecasts suggest mobile data traffic could grow by up to 30 times current levels over the next 5 years. To meet this ever increasing demand operators will need more spectrum and to adopt new technologies to use spectrum more effectively. Governments around the world have announced ambitious targets for spectrum release to mobile broadband services to stimulate economic growth and to support universal service targets.
In this article we discuss the potential benefits from deploying a supplemental downlink in the 1.4 GHz band to support growth in mobile multi-media traffic in the near term.