Nokia has announced that the world’s first connection based on the 5GTF ‘pre-standard’ has been successfully carried out, marking a further milestone in Nokia’s momentum to make 5G a commercial reality.
The test adds another key component to the development of 5G and the implementation of the first 5G applications, demonstrating the ability to provide fast pace implementation according to early standards including device interoperability.
Nokia is playing a leading role in defining the path to 5G. At the end of last year it introduced 4.5G Pro and announced plans for 4.9G, providing operators with the critical increases to capacity and speed that will be needed for future 5G operations.
The world’s first 5G connection, which took place in a laboratory environment in Oulu, Finland, on 23 December, used the 5GTF (Verizon 5G Technology Forum) draft specification and was made possible by Nokia’s commercially available 5G-ready AirScale radio access with the Nokia AirFrame data center platform running on Intel architecture, together with the Intel® 5G mobile trial platform as an end-user device.
Data transmission on a 5G network is a significant milestone in the commercialization of the new wireless 5G technology, and indeed in the cross-industry efforts being made by all players in the 5G ecosystem to standardize all aspects of 5G ahead of full commercial service launches expected to begin in 2020 on 3GPP NR.
The 5G connection marks yet another Nokia contribution to the evolution of communications: the first GSM call was made in Finland more than 20 years ago using a network built by Nokia.
This tradition continued with the world’s first 3G voice call, on a commercial 3GPP system in Finland in 2001, and then with the world’s first LTE call via commercial software in Germany in 2009.
Harold Graham, head of the 5G Business Line in Mobile Networks at Nokia, said: “This first 5G connection is a true landmark for the telecommunications industry, and yet another mark of Nokia’s capabilities in 5G. With its low latency and significant capacity and speed increases, 5G will deliver a variety of new and innovative applications, and Nokia is playing leading roles in all aspects of the total 5G proposition. This ‘first’ highlights our commitment to being on the front line in providing our customers 5G-ready technologies so that they can seize early market opportunities by building 5G-enabled applications.”
