Swedish vendor Ericsson has achieved download speeds of 5Gbps over a pre-standard 5G platform during trials at its lab in Kista witnessed by senior officials from Japan’s NTT DOCOMO and SK Telecom of South Korea. Ericsson’s pre-standard 5G technology uses a new radio interface concept, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology and frequencies in the 15GHz band to achieve the higher levels of throughput. The company claims that the new platform will help address the relentless growth in demand for mobile data as well as enabling next-generation machine-to-machine (M2M) applications. With Long Term Evolution (LTE) penetration already reaching 30% and 50% in Japan and South Korea respectively, DOCOMO and SK Telecom have announced plans to trial 5G technology.
Alex Jinsung Choi, vice president and head of research and development for SK Telecom commented on the demonstration: ‘SK Telecom plans to take the lead in 5G wireless services so we are pleased to see the progress that Ericsson has already made with their live demonstration of 5G performance. 5G will build upon the investment that we have made in LTE and expand our service offering to all of our customers.’ Meanwhile, according to the vendor the high penetration levels of LTE in the US mark the nation as another likely early-adopter of 5G technology, with Ericsson claiming that 85% of mobile connections in the US will be 4G by 2019, whilst 5G technologies are expected to see their market debut in 2020.
Ericsson added that its work on 5G technology includes new antenna technologies with wider bandwidths, higher frequencies and shorter transmission time intervals, radio base stations built with baseband units, new frequency bands (including 15GHz) and high-speed, high-capacity backhaul transmission.