Nokia, Sonera transmit high resolution video at 4.5 Gbps during trial in push to 5G

Nokia revealed that it achieved a peak data throughput of 4.5 Gbps during a trial transmission of high resolution video footage with Telia’s Finnish business Sonera in August.

The vendor said the trial utilised its AirScale base station and core network products, and saw footage from its Ozo virtual reality camera transmitted in the 4.5 GHz frequency. Nokia stated that Sonera plans to conduct further tests of its equipment in the coming months as part of the operator’s preparations for the launch of 5G, which also involve internal laboratory trials at Sonera’s facilities.

Nokia and Sonera’s test of video transmission formed one part of a broader trial of new mobile and copper cable technologies conducted by the companies that saw data rates of up to 10 Gbps achieved on the copper element. Sonera utilised Nokia’s XG-Fast fixed broadband technology, which Nokia explained is designed to boost the data capabilities of short copper loops.

Tommi Uitto, SVP for global product sales at Nokia Mobile Networks, said that combined trials of fixed and mobile broadband technologies are increasingly relevant as the “world is going mobile and mobile is going fixed.” The vendor is constantly striving “to innovate in mobile and fixed technologies, helping our customers migrate and update their networks and prepare for the future”, he added.

Sonera’s head of network architecture and development, Timo Hietalahti, expanded on Uitto’s statement, noting that the ability to combine “mobile and fixed technologies, and making sure those technologies function well together, is more important than ever in future network solutions.”

Services including the Internet of Things (IoT) and virtual reality are already fuelling “explosive growth” in mobile traffic, meaning that “all technologies allowing us to best utilise fixed networks are needed,” Hietalahti explained.

Nokia and Sonera also trialled small cell technology during a music festival in Helsinki in August, the vendor announced. The trial formed another element in Sonera’s move towards deploying 5G technology, Nokia said.

Details of the trials with Sonera are the latest in a series of recent announcements by Nokia surrounding its AirScale infrastructure, which it is marketing as ‘5G-ready’.

For more:
- see this Nokia announcement

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