Optus said this test paves the way for the use of 5G wereables on the telco’s network
Australian operator Optus, Ericsson and chipset maker MediaTek have announced what they say is Australia’s first over-the-air data-call using Ericsson’s pre-commercial Reduced Capability (RedCap) software on Optus’ 5G network.
Optus says that the small device size, long battery life and substantial throughput of RedCap devices would make them ideal for many mobile consumer applications such as wearables, health monitors, augmented reality (AR) devices, as well as industrial applications such as video surveillance and industrial sensors.
Optus also said that the call was made possible using Ericsson’s advanced Reduced Capability (RedCap) software using any available 5G spectrum, with both time division duplex (TDD) and frequency division duplex (FDD), in low and mid frequency bands.
Lambo Kanagaratnam, managing director of networks at Optus, said: “This announcement is about catering for 5G for wearable devices, like watches, so customers can benefit from accessing the most up to date technology in their daily lives. With this Australian-first data call on RedCap, we are paving the way for future 5G wearable devices.”
“We are pleased to be working with Optus and MediaTek to bring the benefits of Ericsson RedCap to Optus’ customers. With this advancement, Optus can offer enhanced 5G connectivity for everything from consumer wearables to industrial sensors in a way that is both cost and energy-efficient, unlocking a whole range of new use cases,” said Martin Wiktorin Head of Ericsson’s Global Customer Unit, Singtel.
Last week, Ericsson said it had teamed up with MediaTek to perform 5G RedCap data and 5G voice calls on both frequency division duplex (FDD) and time division duplex (TDD) spectrum bands.
Ericsson noted that the interoperability development testing (IoDT) took place at an Ericsson lab in Sweden, using pre-commercial Ericsson RedCap software and MediaTek’s RedCap testing platform.
The test involved an FDD data call, which achieved a throughput speed of 220 Mbps in the downlink and 74 Mbps for uplink, and the partners also carried out a TDD data call that reached a downlink speed of 153 Mbps and uplink speed of 13.5Mbps.
The European vendor said that Ericsson RedCap is expected to be commercially ready in November 2023 as a software addition to 5G Standalone (SA) networks powered by Ericsson.
RedCap, sometimes referred to as NR Light, is a reduced set of 5G capabilities intended for devices like wearables and low-cost hotspots that have low battery consumption, lower costs and lower bandwidth requirements. Introduced with 3GPP Release 17, 5G RedCap is designed for devices currently served by LTE CAT-4 but provides equivalent or better in performance with up to 150 Mbps theoretical maximum downlink throughput. This technology helps reduce the complexity, cost and size of 5G devices.
