Telstra, Ericsson complete 5G standalone call in Australia

The first end-to-end 5G standalone (SA) call in Australia was successfully completed by Ericsson and Telstra. According to the companies, the call took place at Telstra’s 5G Innovation Center.

The call was conducted over 3.6 GHz spectrum using Ericsson’s Baseband 6630, Radio AIR6488 and a 5G SA device based on a MediaTek chipset.

This comes after Ericsson’s recent announcement of Standalone (SA) New Radio (NR) software for 5G coverage. 

RELATED: Ericsson rolls out standalone 5G NR software

Ericsson’s standalone 5G NR software can be deployed on existing Ericsson radio system hardware, enabling operators to launch standalone 5G with a simple software upgrade. It supports network slicing, ultra-low latency and better coverage than the non-standalone (NSA) version. 

Channa Seneviratne, network and infrastructure engineering executive at Telstra, said in a statement, “To date we’ve already launched 5G in 10 cities, and this will increase to at least 35 cities over the next 12 months. This is another example of the ongoing industry collaboration, working within the 5G eco-system and technology partners like Ericsson to pave the way for 5G advancements, and the benefits it will bring all Australians.”

Earlier this month Ericsson posted solid second-quarter results, with the vendor’s chief executive citing positive momentum in its 5G business.