
By the start of September 2017, 81 operators in 42 countries have demonstrated or are testing, trialling or have been licensed to begin 5G field trials says a new report 5G Update by GSA.
Between them they have announced over 140 separate demonstrations, tests or trials. The past eighteen months have seen substantial investment in developing, lab testing and running field trials of 5G. The development of 5G systems has moved well beyond equipment vendors’ labs and into operators’ networks.
Joe Barrett, President, GSA said, “We have been able to identify a wide range of operators usually working in close cooperation with GSA Member companies that have announced over 140 separate demonstrations, tests or trials. Key pre-standards 5G technologies are being explored operating in spectrum bands not previously used for mobile telecoms services; 28 GHz has been the spectrum band most often utilized.”
Key pre-standards 5G technologies being explored include new radio (NR) interfaces operating in spectrum bands not previously used for mobile telecoms services; network slicing to support delivery of services tailored to specific types of customer or service; combinations of technologies such as massive MIMO, or complex beamforming that are needed to achieve very high speeds; or backhaul, cloud and edge computing arrangements to support very low latencies.
None of the trials can yet be said to be 5G trials, as the 3GPP standardisation processes are not yet complete. At this stage GSA views them all as trials of pre-standards 5G technologies.
The process for standardising new radio networks capable of running alongside existing LTE networks, the Non-standalone (NSA) mode for enhanced mobile broadband use-case, are due to be finalised in March 2018. Standards for Standalone (SA) 5G NR mode for enhanced mobile broadband networks are targeted to follow in September 2018.
Operators Testing or Trialling 5G:
Operator – Country
Cable & Wireless Communications (Flow) – Antigua
Ooredoo – Qatar
Optus – Australia
Telekom Romania – Romania
Telstra – Australia
Megafon – Russia
MTS – Russia
Rostelecom – Russia
Tattelecom – Russia
Tele2 – Russia
Vimpelcom (Beeline) – Russia
Austria – Austria
Batelco – Bahrain
beCloud – Belarus
Proximus – Belgium
Telenet – Belgium
Claro – Brazil
Bell Canada – Canada
Telus – Canada
China Mobile – China
China Telecom – China
China Unicom – China
Tele2 Eesti – Estonia
Elisa – Finland
Sonera – Finland
Bouygues Telecom – France
Orange – France
Deutsche Telekom – Germany
Telefonica – Germany
Vodafone – Germany
Hong Kong – Hong Kong
Smartone – Hong Kong
Magyar Telecom – Hungary
Telkomsel – Indonesia
Fastweb – Italy
Linkem – Italy
Telecom Italia – Italy
Vodafone -Italy
Wind – Italy
KDDI – Japan
NTT Docomo – Japan
Softbank -Japan
Viva- Kuwait
LMT – Latvia
Alpha – Lebanon
Celcom Axiata – Malaysia
Telenor – Norway
PLDT – Philipines
Smart – Philippines
TIM – San Marino
STC – South Arica
Zain – South Africa
M1 – Singapore
Singtel – Singapore
Starhub – Singapore
KT – South Korea
LG U+ – South Korea
SK Telecom – South Korea
Telefonica – Spain
Dialog Axiata – Sri Lanka
Mobitel – Sri Lanka
Telia – Sweden
Swisscom – Switzerland
Chungwha – Taiwan
Far Eastone – Taiwan
AIS – Thailand
True Corp – Thailand
Turk Telekom – Turkey
Turkcell – Turkey
Du – UAE
Etisalat – UAE
Arqiva – UK
EE – UK
Vodafone – UK
Lifecell – Ukraine
AT&T Mobility – USA
C Spire – USA
Sprint – USA
T-Mobile – USA
US Cellular – USA
Verizon Wireless – USA
Source: GSA
Spectrum Bands
Around the world regulators are working out what spectrum bands to free up for 5G. In the meantime, operators have been working in many of the candidate spectrum bands. The 28 GHz band has been most used. Note that some trials involved more than one spectrum band.
Network Throughput
One of the key metrics being reported is the peak throughput of the various demonstrations, tests and trials. The demonstrations and trials are not really comparable, as they use varying amounts of spectrum, and different types of equipment, in contrasting physical environments, and for a range of applications. Nonetheless it is interesting to note that many of them report that speeds well in excess of 1 Gigabit per second have been achieved.
Latency
5G networks are expected to have substantially reduced latency compared with current mobile networks. This is another key metric for demonstrations and trials, as vendors and operators seek to achieve the 5G benchmarks.
Many more trials are anticipated in coming months, and with a number of cities now identified as the locations for early 5G test bed networks, one can expect to see more detail about emerging 5G network performance.
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