Ericsson and Qualcomm Technologies have achieved a non-standalone (NSA) 5G New Radio (NR) data call using the 2.6 GHz frequency band. The bi-directional downlink and uplink data call was made at the Ericsson Lab in Kista, Sweden. It brings a new sub-6 frequency band one step closer to commercial rollout.
This latest Interoperability Development Testing (IoDT) data call is compliant with the 3GPP Rel-15 “early drop” specification that was frozen in March 2018 but further stabilized in September, and is the basis for commercial launches expected in the first half of 2019.
The lab demonstration used Ericsson’s commercially available 5G hardware – including its 5G NR radio AIR 6488 and RAN Compute products – together with Qualcomm Technologies’ mobile smartphone form-factor test device powered by the Snapdragon X50 5G modem and antenna modules with integrated RF transceiver, RF front-end and antenna elements. Qualcomm and Ericsson completed similar IoDTs on 28 GHz and 39 GHz millimeter wave bands, as well as on 3.5 GHz band based on the September specifications.
Ericsson is steadfastly working with key ecosystem partners for network and device IoDT based on 3GPP-compliant solutions on mmWave, 3.5 GHz and now 2.6 GHz bands. The capabilities of 5G extend far beyond previous generations of mobile communication. Examples of these capabilities are very high data rates, very low latency and energy efficiency. Access to new spectrum bands is one of the key elements to increase capacity and data rates.
Click here to know more about Ericsson’s 5G technology milestones and how the company is accelerating 5G commercialization.
