Ericsson said that the 26GHz mmWave tests took place in the Norwegian cities of Oslo, Trondheim and Lillestrøm
Telia Norway and Ericsson have carried out 5G tests using mmWave spectrum, achieving download speeds of close to 4 Gbps, the vendor said in a release.
The 26 GHz mmWave tests in the Norwegian cities of Oslo, Trondheim and Lillestrøm will explore coverage and capacity indoors, outdoors and in densely populated areas.
Ericsson said that the goal of these 5G tests is to see how consumers, businesses, and industries can utilize the speed, capacity, and latency of the mmWave spectrum. The tests will use Ericsson’s full radio solution (Radio AIR5322 and Baseband 6630), with contribution to the overall solution design, configuration, and testing.
Telia and Ericsson have been collaborating with industry and academia to develop various 5G use cases, such as self-driving trucks, a driverless ferry trial in Norway, and a driverless electric minibus trial in Stockholm, Sweden.
The two companies said they are currently seeing great opportunities for 5G as a platform for innovation in the enterprise market, as a wide range of industries can take advantage of 5G connectivity to improve the speed and efficiency of operations, enabling automation, VR and AR applications.
Georg Svendsen, head of infrastructure at Telia Norway, said: “Our tests in the millimeter band show impressive download speeds with massive capacity and low latency. This makes the technology perfect for everything from Enterprise Mobile Networks and advanced gaming to fan experiences at sport stadiums and of course for private and commercial use in general.”
Jenny Lindqvist, head of Northern and Central Europe for Ericsson, said: “These record-level download speeds are another result of the strategic partnership between Telia and Ericsson. We are proud to continue to showcase our latest 5G technology together with our customers across Northern and Central Europe. We will continue towards new records, spreading our technology widely for the full society to leverage upon.”
During the rest of this year, Telia said it aims to increase the pace of its 5G development in Norway, reaching a nationwide 5G network in 2023.
Last year, Telia and Ericsson launched what they claimed to be the first 5G carrier aggregation trial in Norway, with the aim of supporting Telia’s nationwide 5G rollout.
As part of Telia’s ambition to bring nationwide 5G coverage to Norway by 2023, Telia and Ericsson started a 5G New Radio (NR) TDD-FDD carrier aggregation for coverage extension trial in Lillestrøm, a town located next to Oslo, the capital city of Norway.
Ericsson explained that carrier aggregation technology will enable the Nordic carrier to maximize its existing spectrum and extend coverage in the mid-band frequencies (3.6 GHz), boosting capacity and increasing peak throughput for faster data speeds.
In May 2020, Telia had launched its 5G network in Norway, with initial deployments in Lillestrøm and parts of Groruddalen in the greater Oslo region.
In 2019, Telia had selected Ericsson to be its sole radio access network (RAN) supplier to in Norway. Under the agreement, Ericsson not only supplied hardware and software solutions, but has also been working with Telia Norway to modernize the operator’s entire radio network as part of the move to 5G.
The deployment utilized Ericsson’s dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS) software, which allows carriers to share existing spectrum for both LTE and 5G.
