MTS has restated its ambitions of launching a live 5G network trial by 2018, having signed a collaborative strategic agreement with Nokia.

The agreement centres around developing a strategic pathway towards the delivery of 5G technology, expanding o n a variety of LTE technologies and the co-existence of LTE and 5G. The aim, according to Nokia, is to deploy a test 5G network at a Russian football stadium during a major spots tournament in 2018, which one could assume would be the FIFA football World Cup.

MTS also has an existing MoU in place with Ericsson, adding further certainty to the telco’s ambitions to be one of the world’s first to deploy 5G. The MoU, signed in December, will focus on understanding and defining the spectrum requirements of the next generation network and subsequently building a test system.

With Nokia, MTS is will be looking at how to use 5G for internet of things systems and devices. Factoring into its plans are test projects using LTE-A Pro and 5G to gain faster speeds, lower latency and new spectrum efficiencies. The intention for the trial is to deliver an experience for football fans using what it refers to as “innovative video and other services”. This could potentially be an expansion on the much-touted LTE-Broadcast tech, which functions much in the same way as TV broadcasting but over the mobile network, thus maximising spectral efficiency and not requiring multiple upload and download links from multiple users.

Tests will focus on five different areas of LTE, as well as some elements of 5G integration and test network deployment, including:

“MTS is developing a roadmap for the evolution of its networks taking into account the complexity and scope of the challenges to be solved when implementing the 5G standards,” said Andrey Ushatsky, CTO of MTS. “We are excited to leverage Nokia’s technology to help us transition to 5G and take full advantage of IoT. The joint projects and trials we will undertake will enable us to meet future data demand in the most effective way, and we look forward to showcasing this work in 2018.”