Telefonica carried out the 5G trial using an autonomous minibus and technology from Ericsson
Spanish telecommunications firm Telefónica has showcased a 5G use case in Talavera de la Reina, Spain, with an EZ10 autonomous-driving, electric minibus, as part of the company’s 5G Technological Cities project presented by the operator in January this year.
The telco claimed this use case was the first 5G demonstration that makes use of the 3.5 GHz band with mobility. The demo consisted of an autonomous electric vehicle from the EasyMile company, in which an Ericsson 5G terminal and the CarMedia Solutions platform were installed, in order to offer multimedia content, digital services, and virtual office applications during the journey.
The European telco said that 5G coverage was provided through a Telefónica mobile unit with an Ericsson 5G antenna.
“5G technology has much to contribute in the field of the connected vehicle. In addition to the download of multimedia content, autonomous vehicles generate up to 4 TB of daily information from the information collected by the sensors, meaning that a high bandwidth is necessary for transferring this data in real time to the network’s edge and also an extremely low latency. All in order to jointly process the data received by the vehicles of a certain area and to proceed with decision making, thus increasing the security in vehicular environments,” said Javier Gutiérrez, director of strategy and network development at Telefónica.
“Ericsson has already signed 39 agreements to start 5G trials and for the development of use cases like the one we present today. With this demonstration, we take a look at the future and how 5G will enable autonomous driving, only one example among many possibilities,” said Jorge Navais, commercial director for the Telefonica account, at Ericsson.
During the 5G demo, passengers were able to experience Movistar+’s own production contents and Talavera de la Reina’s georeferenced tourism contents via the CarMedia platform. As the autonomous vehicle advanced through the city, an immersive multimedia experience was offered on the screen. Additionally, the solution integrated digital services which provided access to a virtual office by simulating a remote work environment.
Telefonica also highlighted that the EasyMile electric vehicle is equipped with autonomous driving technology, integrating numerous sensors (LIDAR, GPS, video cameras) that made it possible to analyze the environment and create a three-dimensional map of it.
Telefonica’s 5G Technological Cities project aims to transform Talavera de la Reina and Segovia into living 5G laboratories over the next three years, with capabilities including the initial 5G capacity, the deployment of the new network and the development of use cases allowing their citizens and companies to benefit from the advantages of 5G.
Under this initiative, Telefonica has partnered with Nokia and Ericsson for the initial deployment of 5G capabilities in these two cities.
The Spanish operator said these two initial deployments will allow it to adapt its systems for the future rollout of 5G systems across the rest of the country. The telco also said that 5G use cases will be developed with concept tests on the new services, products, experiences and business models.
