Nokia and Elisa said the test hit speeds of 1.5 Gbps, though access to 3.5 GHz band for 5G support is not expected until at least 2019.
Finnish telecommunications provider Elisa and vendor partner Nokia said they recently completed a test of “5G” technology using the 3.5 GHz spectrum band that hit peak data speeds of 1.5 gigabits per second and showed latency as low as 1.5 milliseconds.
Results from the tests, which were conducted in Rusko, Finland, were compared favorably to current commercial LTE networks, with the companies stating “the test results were very encouraging.” It was noted the test was the first of its kind in Europe.
Timing for actual deployments in Finland using the 3.5 GHz band are not expected until at least 2019, with Elisa noting the up to 400 megahertz of available spectrum set to be available across the band not expected to be release until the end of 2018.
“We are eagerly waiting for the 3.5 GHz band to become fully available as it will accelerate the offering of commercial 5G services to our customers,” said Kalle Lehtinen, VP of technology and architecture at Elisa, in a statement.
Elisa last year said it worked with Huawei in hitting network speeds of 1.9 Gbps across an LTE network, though it did not indicate when such speeds would be available to customers. Earlier this year, Elisa and Nokia said they carried out a test of cloud radio access network technology that allowed cellular base stations to be moved to and managed in the cloud.
The 3.5 GHz band is also receiving considerable attention in the U.S., with the Federal Communications Commission working with several companies to allow access to at least 100 megahertz of spectrum in the band using a tiered spectrum access system. Alphabet, which oversees the Google empire, recently claimed to have completed an end-to-end test of consumer devices connecting to base stations using the 3.5 GHz band – also known as the consumer broadband radio service band – and formed a “trusted tester program” designed to ensure interoperability between CBRS base stations and the SAS set to manage resources.
The 3.5 GHz band in the U.S. is now in the hands of the Department of Defense for use in certain radar installations, as well as by non-federal fixed satellite service earth stations for receive-only, space-to-earth operations and feeder links. The FCC’s goal was to find a way for shared access to the spectrum without causing interference with existing users.
In setting up access rules, the FCC laid out a three-tiered sharing system in order of access priority: incumbent federal users and fixed satellite service operators; priority access licensees with authorization to use an unpaired 10-megahertz channel in a geographic service area for a single three-year period; and general authorized access, which permits access to 80 megahertz of spectrum not assigned to a higher tier.
The initial focus for the band was to support LTE services, but has since shifted to it being considered one of the “low-band” options in support of 5G services expected to have a high reliance on spectrum bands above the 25 GHz level.
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