This latest demonstration – a bi-directional call on both downlink and uplink streams – was completed at the Ericsson Lab in Kista, Sweden on July 6, 2018. This milestone brings 5G one step closer to commercial reality.

A total of 18 service providers across the world took part in the data call demonstration, including Asia Pacific Telecom, Bouygues Telecom, Telefónica, China Unicom, FarEasTone, NTT DOCOMO, Orange, SK Telecom, SmarTone, Telstra, and T-Mobile USA.

Ericsson and its partners used for the first time Ericsson’s commercially available equipment, including the 5G NR radio 6488, baseband and Packet Core supporting 5G EPC. The demonstration also included the Intel® 5G Mobile Trial Platform for the 5G NR UE, which allows for quick implementation of the latest air interfaces and communication protocols.

Nishant Batra, Head of Product Area Networks at Ericsson, says: “The work carried out by Ericsson engineers together with our partners is laying the groundwork for the commercial readiness of 5G. We continue to drive the establishment of an ecosystem that will ensure this technology is a commercial success.”

Asha Keddy, Vice President and General Manager of Next Generation and Standards, Intel, says: “Ericsson and Intel have demonstrated a successful 5G NR non-standalone data call, which serves as another powerful proof point that commercial 5G is at hand. Intel and the industry have worked closely together on the finalization of the 3GPP 5G R15 standard and now we will collaborate to help operators accelerate their 5G networks, as Intel evolves its LTE modem line-up toward the Intel® XMM 8000™ series modem by 2019.”

Ericsson has been a driving force in 5G standardization for many years, making early predictions for what 5G could do back in 2010 and quickly creating testbeds with leading operators around the world. In December 2017, Ericsson and its partners announced the completion of the first 5G non-standalone NR standard and in June 2018, Ericsson and Intel completed the first successful standalone (SA) 5G call based on the new interoperability standard for SA.