Russia’s MTS and Nokia claim to reach 4.5-Gbps speeds in 5G trials

Russian mobile operator MTS and Nokia achieved what the companies described as a “record-breaking” peak data throughput of 4.5 Gbps in a 5G network trial using a 200 MHz spectrum block.

The announcement came only a day after the Finnish vendor revealed that it achieved 4.5 Gbps during a trial transmission of high-resolution video footage with Telia’s Finnish business Sonera in August.

In a blog on its web site, MTS said the tests were carried out on Nokia’s AirFrame and AirScale equipment using two aggregated 100 MHz blocks in the 4.65-4.85 GHz spectrum band with the support of 8x8 MIMO antenna technology and multi-channel video streaming.

During the trial, a video clip filmed in 8K Ultra HD quality was streamed live on a big screen using Nokia equipment, while guests were equipped with virtual-reality headsets. The maximum downlink speed was 4.5 Gbps, meaning that a 1 GB file can be transferred in less than two seconds.

Nokia began its collaboration with MTS on 5G and the Internet of Things (IoT) in May this year. The companies plan to deploy a test 5G network in Russia during 2018.

As well as 5G, the agreement will also see them test LTE Advanced Pro (LTE-A Pro) features such as enhanced carrier aggregation and LTE-Broadcast; LTE-Unlicensed (LTE-U) and Licensed Assisted Access (LAA); narrowband IoT (NB-IoT); and dual connectivity of LTE and 5G technologies in the centimetre band.

In May, Andrey Ushatsky, VP and CTO at MTS, said: "MTS is developing a roadmap for the evolution of its networks taking into account the complexity and scope of the challenges to be solved when implementing the 5G standards…The joint projects and trials we will undertake will enable us to meet future data demand in the most effective way, and we look forward to showcasing this work in 2018."

MTS emphasised that 5G will be an important element of the IoT, pointing to estimates that the IoT will result in 10- to 100-times more connected devices than people, "creating technological challenges, but also opportunities, for new services and applications."

For more:
- see this MTS post
- see this Nokia release from May

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