MTN has partnered with Huawei to conduct the first 5G outdoor trial in Africa.<\/p>\n
Using Huawei\u2019s recently-launched commercial 5G terminal in conjunction with an existing tower, MTN reached download speeds of 530Mbps and upload speeds of 79Mbps, along with a latency of 7ms \u2013 measured in an online speed test.<\/p>\n
The network allocated 100MHz of its high-frequency 28GHz spectrum to conduct the test and used Huawei\u2019s 5G outdoor terminal to deliver the connection to a Huawei Wi-Fi router.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the first time we are demonstrating a complete end-to-end 5G network operating in a real-world environemnt,\u201d said MTN.<\/p>\n
The connection was provided by a 5G radio set-up near the live demo site, and multiple devices were connected to the router and used to measure the speed delivered by the connection.<\/p>\n
Unlike the\u00a05G trial<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0conducted in partnership with Ericsson earlier this year, MTN said this was a field trial more indicative of real-world network performance \u2013 using far less spectrum and more compact hardware.<\/p>\n The previous test used a base station in MTN\u2019s offices to deliver 5G speeds, while this trial utilised a connection provided by existing infrastructure.<\/p>\n MTN said the connection used in the trial could function as a \u201cfibre look-alike\u201d solution for fixed broadband access.<\/p>\n The mobile operator ran multiple demos simultaneously using its 5G connection, including VR demos, 4K video streams, and online speed tests.<\/p>\n The frequency of the spectrum allocated for the outdoor trial is too high to be viable for the widespread connection of handheld devices, but could be used to deliver high-speed fixed wireless access to businesses and customers.<\/p>\n MTN said the rollout of 5G services to smartphones and other handheld devices would depend on the allocation of lower-frequency spectrum to operators and the development of compatible devices.<\/p>\n This article was first published on MyBroadband – to see images of the device used, check out the original<\/a><\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n
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