5G services could change everything, but just not yet Watch Now

5G services could change everything, but just not yet

Verizon and Nokia have announced transmitting a 5G signal between two radio sectors to a moving vehicle, calling the successful trial a "major 5G milestone".

executive guide What is 5G? Everything you need to know about the new wireless revolution It's a capital improvement project the size of the entire planet, replacing one wireless architecture created this century with another one that aims to lower energy consumption and maintenance costs. Read More

The test, conducted at Nokia's Murray Hill, New Jersey, campus, utilised 28GHz millimetre-wave (mmWave) spectrum and two 5G New Radios (5G NR), as well as a vehicle fitted with a receiver and a device to measure the connection.

"The vehicle travelled between the two radios, achieving seamless 5G NR Layer 3 3GPP-compliant mobility handoff of the signal between the two sectors (intra-gNB and inter-DU)," Verizon said in a statement.

"By taking these tests out of the lab and into the field, we're replicating the experience users will ultimately have in a 5G mobility environment," Verizon VP of Technology Development and Planning Bill Stone added.

"Tests like the one we conducted are significant advancements in the development of 5G technology."

Verizon and Nokia had in February also announced making the first over-the-air call on 5G using mmWave spectrum, Nokia equipment, and a prototype device from Qualcomm; this followed the carrier announcing a successful 5G video call between Minneapolis and Seoul with Samsung and KT earlier that month.

Verizon last week announced that it will be bringing its 5G network to Indianapolis by the end of 2018, with the city joining Sacramento, Los Angeles, and Houston in the carrier's roadmap.

Verizon had trialled 5G during the Indianapolis 500 motor race in partnership with Intel and Ericsson in May last year, using technologies such as beam forming and beam tracking to attain speeds in excess of 6Gbps.

Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam in May said Verizon will be making use of mmWave spectrum for its 5G networks, having trialled the technology in 2017.

The carrier's 11 pre-commercial 5G trial networks -- in Sacramento; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Atlanta, Georgia; Dallas and Houston, Texas; Miami, Florida; Seattle, Washington; Washington DC; Bernardsville, New Jersey; Brockton, Massachusetts; and Denver, Colorado -- were deployed throughout 2017.

Verizon has been additionally improving its LTE networks, in October adding Massive Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (Massive MIMO) technology across its wireless network in Irvine, California, increasing network capacity and speeds for customers in partnership with Ericsson.

Last month, Verizon and Ericsson further announced an expansion of their 4G LTE partnership, with the Swedish networking giant to deploy its 4G and 5G-ready radio system across multiple US markets.

The baseband and dual-band radios are software upgradeable to 5G once Verizon launches its new network, with the mobile sites also able to deliver narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) and Cat-M IoT device connectivity.

"Working with Ericsson allows us to deploy the latest technologies on our 4G LTE-Advanced network. [It] will be an important component of our rapid transition to 5G," Verizon SVP of Technology, Strategy, and Planning Ed Chan said in July.

In June last year, Verizon had told ZDNet that one of the "key" parts of 5G is interoperability, with the carrier working with Ericsson, Cisco, Samsung, Intel, LG, Nokia, and Qualcomm to roll out its pre-commercial 5G trial network.

"Interoperability ... is very key," Verizon senior solutions architect Chris Painter told ZDNet.

"It's going to be a multi-vendor solution, so we need to have that interoperability."

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