FINLAND - Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and Nokia announced plans to conduct interoperability testing and over-the-air field trials based on the 5G New Radio (NR) Release-15 specifications being developed by 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project).
The testing and trials intend to drive the mobile ecosystem toward rapid validation and commercialization of 5G NR technologies at scale, enabling timely commercial network launches in 2019 based on 3GPP standard compliant 5G NR infrastructure and devices.
There is clear and growing industry interest for 5G mobility applications to meet increasing mobile broadband needs and emerging use case requirements globally. A recent 5G consumer survey conducted by Qualcomm Technologies revealed that 48% of the respondents are likely to purchase a smartphone that supports 5G when available. Furthermore, 5G was the top feature that consumers were willing to pay more for in their next mobile device.
In the testing and trials which will start in the second half of 2017, the companies will showcase 5G NR technologies to efficiently achieve multi-gigabit per second data rates at latencies as low as 1-millisecond and significantly better reliability than today’s network, amongst other capabilities. These technologies will be critical to meeting the increasing connectivity requirements for emerging consumer mobile broadband experiences such as streaming high-fidelity video, immersive virtual/augmented reality, and connected cloud computing, as well as enabling new high-reliability, low-latency services for use cases such as autonomous vehicles, drones and industrial equipment.
The testing and trials will utilize the Nokia 5G FIRST solution, incorporating the Nokia AirScale base station transmitting over the 5G NR radio interface to the device prototype from Qualcomm Technologies.
“Qualcomm Technologies is committed to deliver the most compelling mobile broadband experiences based on 5G NR technology. We are making 5G a reality for mobile devices – including smartphones – from sub-6 GHz to millimeter wave – globally,” said Cristiano Amon, executive vice president, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., and president, Qualcomm CDMA Technologies.
“The appetite for 5G technology is clear, amongst both consumers and communications service providers,” said Marc Rouanne, president of mobile networks, Nokia.
The Companies are also collaborating with network operators to conduct 5G NR over-the-air field trials starting in 2018 across various regions including China, Europe, Japan, and the USA.