UK telecommunications colossus Vodafone has partnered with Swedish vendor Ericsson to trial next-generation 5G technology in Ireland’s capital city Dublin. Vodafone has claimed that the trial was a success and the pilot represents the very first live 5G test of the emerging technology in Ireland.
In a joint-statement, Vodafone and Ericsson announced they reached speeds exceeding 15GBPs with a latency of less than 5ms. In addition to this, Vodafone said it had also conducted pre-standard 5G tests across its recently acquired 3.6GHz spectrum.
Vodafone has indicated its intentions to provide 5G services to Irish customers in the next two years. In December 2017, Vodafone U.K. and Ericsson successfully tested standalone pre-standard 5G using a prototype device in a central London 3.5 GHz spectrum field trial. The two telecommunication entities said the 5G trial was carried out in partnership with academics at King’s College London. During the trial, engineers were able to showcase a number of technologies at King’s College London, including massive MIMO.
Last summer, Vodafone UK selected Ericsson which has endured a number of difficult years for the provision of 5G radio technology in order to pave the path forward for the introduction and subsequent deployment of 5G in the region. Under the terms of this agreement, Ericsson will also use technologies such as Massive MIMO and carrier aggregation to upgrade Vodafone’s 4G networks in London and southern England.
In other telecommunications news in relation to 5G in Europe, US operator T-Mobile is currently showcasing 5G technology in the city of Innsbruck, Austria, through the deployment of two radio cells. Using the preliminary version of the final 5G standard, T-Mobile’s network in Innsbruck delivers transmission rates of 2Gbps and a latency of 3ms.
Tyrol Governor Gunther Platter expressed his delight at the fact that his region was selected for the very first pilot of 5G in Austria. He said, “Our bandwidth initiative has laid the groundwork for building out the 5G network going forward. I am particularly pleased that Innsbruck will be a first pilot region. Looking ahead, Tyrol plans to launch a task force with all operators to further accelerate the 5G rollout.”