China Mobile Shanghai has launched a 5G network in Shanghai’s Hongqiao Railway Station, making it the first railway station to have a 5G digital indoor system (DIS). The deployment aims to achieve deep indoor 5G coverage within the whole station by the end of 2019 providing easy access to fast 5G network services for all passengers.

Qualcomm Technologies, Verizon and Ericsson together successfully surpassed the Gigabit speed barrier, Ericsson said in a statement on August 21. The companies achieved an industry first with commercial silicon and network infrastructure with 1.07Gbps download speeds using Qualcomm Snapdragon X20 LTE Modem, the first to support Category 18 LTE, during an Ericsson lab trial.

The CTO of Australian incumbent Telstra has admitted that the telecommunications firm is pushing its gigabit LTE to maximize the most of its existing 4G network as it prepares for the forthcoming 5G era. Hakan Eriksson, CTO, said the primary objective behind Telstra's strategy is to improve 4G as much as possible in order to be properly prepared for the introduction of 5G technology.

Vodafone Germany said it plans to invest €2 billion in its fixed infrastructure as it moves to deliver gigabit fiber broadband to 13.7 million customers. The company said it aims to finish the investment by 2021 and will focus on three segments in cooperation with partner companies in Germany.

ZTE Corporation, a major international provider of telecommunications, enterprise and consumer technology solutions for the Mobile Internet, together with China Mobile and Qualcomm, announced that they have demonstrated a Pre5G gigabit rate solution in time division-long term evolution (TD-LTE) commercial network in Quanzhou, Fujian.