Network slicing uses 5G SA technology, which BT Group launched last September
BT Group has announced what it claims to be the first real-world deployment of 5G Standalone (5G SA) network slicing capabilities over the EE mobile network.
In a release, the telco said that this trial was launched to support faster and more resilient mobile payments at Belfast’s Christmas Market, which took place last month.
During the two-week trial, a dedicated slice of the EE 5G network was partitioned for use in the renowned Lavery’s Beer Tent to support its eight mobile payment terminals, enabling superfast card and mobile payments for thousands of customers. It marks the first time that a business has benefitted from access to a partitioned slice from EE’s public network and live 5G Standalone core, said BT.
Network slicing uses 5G SA technology, which BT Group launched last September, to provide a customer with a protected ‘slice’ of the network for assured performance, boosting connectivity speeds and lowering latency.
BT also noted that the trial successfully demonstrated the capability of network slicing to bypass congestion in busy locations and keep businesses connected through dedicated quality of service.
Paul Murnaghan, BT’s Northern Ireland Director, said: “Businesses increasingly rely on technology that’s able to cope with the demands of the ever-pervasive digital world, securely. We have all visited a retailer and had the awkward ‘wait while we check’ to see if a payment has been completed correctly. Network slicing helps tackle this problem by enabling consistently fast and smooth connectivity, critically giving certainty to both traders and customers even when the network is busy in specific locations like Belfast Christmas Market.”
EE, owned by BT Group, expects to reach countrywide coverage with its 5G network by 2028, Greg McCall, chief networks officer at BT Group previously told RCR Wireless News.
“Our ambition is to enable a 5G connection anywhere in the U.K. by 2028. The strength of our underlying 4G network has put us in a good position to make widespread 5G coverage improvements outside of big cities, with EE’s 5G now available to nearly 80% of the U.K. population. This means that we’ve made strong progress in bringing 5G to smaller communities across the U.K., as well as to popular rural tourist destinations and National Parks,” McCall said.
The executive highlighted that small cells are an integral component within the operator’s mobile network, being designed for capacity offload from the macro network to ensure that even in the busiest places, customers have access to the full performance of the network.
McCall highlighted that EE’s 5G SA network was recently launched with at least 95% coverage across 15 U.K. cities. The 5G SA network was initially available in Bath, Belfast, Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Hull, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, London, Manchester and Sheffield.
The executive said that the telco was expecting to more than double the number of locations that have 5G SA available by the end of this year to cover an area of more than 21 million people, almost a third of the U.K. population.
EE recently said its 5G SA uses the latest AI technology to support automation and machine learning, improving reliability and reducing energy demand by putting mobile cells into a sleep mode when not being used. EE also noted it is also exploring ways the new technology will overhaul how customers experience connectivity in the future.
