Vodafone and Ericsson held an unusual demo this week to show off global roaming features of 5G and “mobility gaming.”
For the technical demonstration, Vodafone brought two prominent esports gamers from the Vodafone Giants team to play a game as they crossed the border between Portugal and Spain. The two gamers traveled in two separate cars as they played each other in real time while crossing the Minho River, a portion of which runs between the two countries. The gamers traveled a total of three kilometers between Tui in Vigo, Spain and Valença do Minho, Portugal.
RELATED: Ericsson, Vodafone, BMW advocate for C-V2X for road safety in Europe, not ‘old Wi-Fi’
The demo used Vodafone’s 5G networks in the respective countries. Ericsson was the technology partner for the demo, providing virtualized 5G core network functions for both Vodafone Spain and Vodafone Portugal networks along with 5G Radio gnodeBs, which Ericsson said allowed for roaming mobility between the two countries.
Both 5G networks were connected through Vodafone’s roaming services network. Ericsson has also deployed two radio locations in both Tui and Valença do Minho with 5G Massive MIMO.
RELATED: Ericsson's ConsumerLab report outlines consumer expectations for 5G
The esports demo was used to highlight 5G’s ultra-low latency and high speeds in a mobile environment. The players were able to compete in the video game without lag or disconnections as they crossed the border and switched to a different 5G network, Ericsson said.