Telia and Ericsson have completed a 5G trial on a live network in Europe, achieving top-line peak rates of 15Gbps and latency of less than three milliseconds.
The trial system used 800MHz of spectrum in the 15GHz band. The data rates the pair recorded were more than 40 times faster than maximum speeds achievable on 4G.
Telia said the trial, in Kista, in Sweden, marked an “important milestone” in its work with Ericsson to launch 5G services in Stockholm, in Sweden, and Tallinn, in Estonia, in 2018. Products and standards for 5G technology are still being mapped out and deployments are not scheduled until 2020.
Mats Svärdh, Head of Networks & IT Infrastructure, Global Services & Operations at Telia, said: “This is a great achievement and stepping stone towards taking 5G to our customers in Sweden and Estonia 2018.
“The standardisation and development of 5G has just started. Our knowledge and learnings from testing in a real outdoor environment will be crucial to understand and develop the 5G technology and networks needed to meet our customers’ future requirements on our services in a digital society.”
Peter Laurin, Head of Northern Europe & Central Asia at Ericsson, said: “Our 5G roadmap will incrementally introduce IoT technologies and 5G concepts. Telia and Ericsson offer consumers and businesses to stay ahead with 5G-like services introductions. We are continuously creating new opportunities leveraging the promise of IoT and 5G and we’ll all experience it step by step.”
Ericsson is involved in a number of 5G trials and developments across continents.
The Swedish vendor is pushing hard to accelerate the standardisation and deployment of next-generation networks, as it blamed a slow-down in its 4G mobile broadband business for a 14 percent slump in sales during the third quarter.
Ericsson is look to slash SEK9 billion (€920 million) from its operating costs by 2017, and said last week it will axe 3,000 jobs in Sweden, as part of a major shake up at all levels of the business.