Huawei and telco TELUS of Canada announced they have successfully completed a 5G wireless connection using the global 3GPP technology standards platform as the industry moves towards the deployment of 5G.
TELUS noted that the pilot not only demonstrates the faster wireless speeds and lower latency that will be available to customers using 5G technology, but also showcases the potential for 5G technology to deliver wireless-to-the-premise (WTTx) connectivity with speeds and reliability required for smart homes and businesses.
The pilot network created with Huawei was designed to reflect a real-world point-to-multi-point connection over commercial central office equipment and transport networks. The network featured equipment based on 3GPP 5G foundational technologies over 28 GHz spectrum, although 5G standards are not expected to be finalised until early in 2018.
The pilot forms part of TELUS and Huawei’s joint 5G Living Lab facility in Vancouver, where the companies have been trialling next-generation technologies since 2015 in a live real-world environment. TELUS noted that last year the Living Lab demonstrated speeds of 30 Gbit/s in a controlled environment and implemented a heterogeneous network (HetNet) in downtown Vancouver.
While 5G wireless technology is expected to become commercially available in 2020, TELUS stated that customers living in the Vancouver area will have early access to the latest wireless technologies leveraging advances achieved at the 5G Living Lab.
- Previously, in October last year TELUS and Huawei announced they had achieved wireless speeds of up to 29.3 Gbit/s at the 5G Living Lab in Vancouver. The companies also equipped a 4G LTE wireless site in Vancouver with the latest LTE-Advanced Pro technologies, enabling speeds of up to 1 Gbit/s, and planned to upgrade a further 5 sites.
