In unrelated trials, Samsung in Australia and Ericsson in the US claim to have broken specific 5G data transmission records.

Samsung teamed up with state broadband wholesaler NBN to see if they can raise the bar for fixed wireless access performance. In a recent field trial they hit a couple of milestones. Firstly they managed to stretch a mmWave (28GHz) transmission over 10km, which is certainly a record for Samsung.

And then they claim average downlink speeds of 1.75Gbps and uplink speeds of 61.5Mbps are record speeds over that distance, which stands to reason if that’s the first time it has been covered by the more capacious mmWave frequency. It took no less than an aggregated 800 MHz of spectrum, over eight component carriers, to achieve this feat.

“The results of these trials with Samsung are a significant milestone and demonstrate how we are pushing the boundaries of innovation in support of the digital capabilities in Australia,” said Ray Owen, CTO at NBN.

“As we roll out the next evolution of our network to extend its reach for the benefit of homes and businesses across the country, we are excited to demonstrate the potential for 5G mmWave. NBN will be among the first in the world to deploy 5G mmWave technology at this scale, and achievements like Samsung’s 10km milestone will pave the way for further developments in the ecosystem.”

“This new 5G record proves the massive potential of mmWave technology, and its ability to deliver enhanced connectivity and capacity for addressing the last mile challenges in rural areas,” said Junehee Lee, Head of R&D, Networks Business at Samsung Electronics. “We are excited to work with NBN to push the boundaries of 5G technology even further in Australia and tap the power of mmWave for customer benefit.”

NBN has been especially keen to explore the potential of FWA, which is totally understandable given Australia’s geographical characteristics. Nearly all of its population lives on the coasts, with its huge hinterland composed largely of uninhabitable bush and desert. Back in March of this year it announced significant additional investment in the tech and more recently Nokia was unveiled as a key FWA vendor partner. It seems NBN is widely going for a multi-vendor strategy.

On the other side of the Pacific Ericsson has been playing around with the CBRS (3.5 GHz) spectrum that was auctioned off a couple of years ago. Specifically, it claims the ‘world’s first demonstration of over 1Gbps 5G connection with CBRS spectrum in an indoor environment. Adding to the trailblazing nature of this field trial is the fact that it was conducted using a 5G SA platform.

“We are excited to continue pushing the envelope of what is possible with 5G,” said Paul Challoner, VP of Network Product Solutions for Ericsson North America. “Ericsson is committed to continue bringing the best technology to realize the full potential of 5G and CBRS early to the market to further catalyze the use of these advanced technologies.”

Part of that commitment involves a partnership with the OnGo Alliance, which apparently ‘coordinated the interoperability of the CBRS ecosystem.’ “Consumers and enterprises will benefit from the high-performing 5G CBRS technology that Ericsson is introducing,” said Alan Ewing, Executive Director, OnGo Alliance. “Ongoing improvements to 5G technology for the CBRS ecosystem provide users with the highest performance and seamless connectivity, whether deployed standalone or with operator spectrum.”

So far, CBRS spectrum seems to be positioned as a way of topping up the capacity of lower frequency but more useful existing spectrum in certain use-cases. As you would expect these are often indoor environments like private networks and airports where the concentration of people demands additional capacity. The speed record was achieved with a single device but illustrates a general fattening of the CBRS pipe for multiple users.

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