Qualcomm Technologies and Ericsson at the 4G/5G Summit in Hong Kong announced the successful completion of a 3GPP Rel-15 spec compliant 5G NR over-the-air (OTA) call over sub-6 GHz bands on a smartphone form factor mobile test device. The OTA call was conducted in the Ericsson Lab in Stockholm, Sweden on the 3.5 GHz band.
Much like the companies’ first OTA calls performed using millimeter wave (mmWave) in both 28 and 39 GHz spectrum bands, the latest sub-6 GHz call utilized Ericsson’s commercial 5G NR radio AIR 6488 and baseband products and a mobile test device powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon X50 5G modem and RF subsystem.
Back in December 2017, Ericsson and Qualcomm Technologies announced interoperability development testing (IODT) to pave a way for the commercial launch of 5G NR standard-compliant infrastructure, smartphones and other mobile devices in the first half of 2019. The successful 5G OTA calls using both sub-6 GHz and mmWave bands are critical milestones in the commercialization process.
Per Narvinger, Head of Product Area Networks, Ericsson, said:
Achieving interoperability on different spectrums shows the strength of the 5G ecosystem. Together with Qualcomm Technologies, we’ve successfully tested 5G NR on 39, 28 and now, 3.5 GHz band. These milestones add to the commercial readiness of 5G. They also assure operators of broader capacity options to cater for diverse use cases.
Durga Malladi, senior vice president, engineering and general manager, 4G/5G, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. said:
Today’s call marks a significant milestone as we have now successfully made 3GPP-compliant calls in the sub-6 GHz and mmWave spectrum bands, which will facilitate mobile operators’ deployment of their 5G NR networks. Sub-6 GHz spectrum is instrumental to the global 5G NR rollout as it will provide a wide area, high-performance connectivity and has been allocated and auctioned in numerous regions around the world, including the US, Korea, and Europe, with others to follow shortly. We look forward to continuing working with Ericsson in making 5G a commercial reality for the mobile ecosystem.