Spanish carrier Orange Spain and ZTE have completed what they claim is the first voice and data call over a standalone 5G network in Europe, the telco said in a statement.
The trial was carried out in Valencia via a 5G New Radio base station, 5G core network and test devices, reaching speeds of 876 Mbps with a single user handset and 3.2 Gbps with 12 handsets working simultaneously.
Orange Spain highlighted that the network technology was fully 5G, whereas previous 5G calls trials in Spain were made using Non-Standalone (NSA) architecture.
“It is key to learn about this new and disruptive technology,”said Mónica Sala, director of networks at Orange Spain. “The know-how of ZTE is evident in achieving this milestone and we are very proud of the results.”
“It is a great pleasure for us to cooperate with Orange for technological innovation and leadership in 5G. We foresee this long-term relationship as a way to learn on 5G commercialization,” said Xiao Ming, president of global sales at ZTE.
Orange Spain plans to extend 5G trials to other industries including construction, energy, health, automotive, and tourism.
The company also said that it is going to test 5G in a number of cities with the support provided by Red.es, the country’s digital transformation program. Tests will be carried out in the cities of Valencia, Seville, Malaga, Vigo, Santiago de Compostela, Barcelona and Bilbao.
Orange Spain’s parent, Orange Group, said it aims to launch 5G technology in 17 major European cities across Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Poland, Romania and Spain during 2019.
The telco said that these initial launches will pave the way for the company’s full-scale commercial launch of this technology, which is scheduled to take place during 2020.
In December 2018, Orange’s CEO Stephane Richard said customers in those European cities would be able to experience 5G services in 2019. The executive highlighted that initial services will mainly target enterprise customers. Richard also said that Orange will organize a forum with industrial partners and startups next year analyse potential 5G use cases for businesses.
Orange Spain will deploy 5G networks in “three or four” Spanish cities in 2019 to pave the way for the commercial launch in 2020.
Orange’s Innovation Director, Bertrand Rojat, previously said that the company aims to launch 5G in three or four Spanish during 2019.
