Long seen as the Achilles Heel of wireless, uplink speeds in the 5G era are taking a decidedly upward turn. In Tampere, Finland, Elisa Corporation, an MNO, achieved an uplink data rate this week of 2.1 Gbps, on a commercial Nokia 5G network at Nokia Arena, with Qualcomm’s terminals.
In Thailand, last spring, Advanced Info Service Plc. (AIS), an MNO, Qualcomm and ZTE announced they had achieved 2.17 Gbps uplink using 5G New Radio Dual Connectivity (NR-DC) in the field. The joint effort combined two 5G frequency bands, Sub-6 (2.6 GHz) and 5G mmWave (26 GHz), to enhance the capabilities of the network.
The uplink speeds achieved by Elisa and AIS roughly double uplink data speed milestones set only last December by Telstra.
Carrier Aggregation Helps Carriers Crank Up the Speeds
The Nokia Arena network in Finland is one of the first stadiums in the world to be equipped with 26 GHz base stations. The base stations and terminals simultaneously used four 100 megahertz bands from the terminal to the Internet.
“The 5G millimeter wave network is the optimal solution for venues such as stadiums where high capacity and particularly fast data transfer are needed to serve thousands of mobile users in a small area,” said Sami Komulainen, Director of Elisa’s Production Unit. “The sharing of different frequencies is key to achieving such peak speeds.”
AIS Test Uses Four Carriers
AIS conducted its test at a commercial 5G site in Korat, Thailand, using a smartphone form-factor device powered by a Snapdragon X65 5G Modem-RF System and ZTE’s mmWave network infrastructure equipment. The NR-DC was implemented with one 100 MHz carrier in 2.6 GHz, and four 200 MHz carriers in 26 GHz.
“This trial gave us a wider channel for the signal and extremely low latency,” Wasit Wattanasap, Head of Nationwide Operation and Support Business Unit, AIS. “For instance, there could be streaming games online (cloud game), controlling driverless vehicles and commanding robots remotely in real-time. Moreover, the trial supports the development of new models of chipsets in the future, to speed up data transfer even more.”
Telstra Uplink Gets Close to a Gig Last December
Last December, Telstra combined with Ericsson and Qualcomm to record an uplink data speed of close to 1 Gbps on a commercial network during a live demo in Queensland, Australia. Telstra’s network used Ericsson’s NR-DC and carrier aggregation software together with a smartphone form-factor test device powered by Snapdragon X65 5G Modem-RF System.
The uplink peak rate was reached by aggregating spectrum in the mid-band and millimeter wave band. The demo used Ericsson’s NR-DC software feature with uplink four-component carrier aggregation, in which four contiguous carriers of 100 MHz were combined.
By J. Sharpe Smith, Inside Towers Technology Editor
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