DT and Huawei claim Europe’s first 5G connection

German operator Deutsche Telekom has gone big at IFA in Berlin, with its commercial network in Berlin apparently now churning out a whopping 2 Gbps.

Just like TMUS yesterday DT chose to throw a bone to its kit partner, in this case Huawei. The two claim to be using 3GPP specifications for 5G New Radio to achieve not just 2 Gbps of data throughput, but a mere three milliseconds of latency. This has all been done over the 3.7 GHz band.

This ‘pre-standard 5G’ is derived from the 3GPP efforts in the area of ‘non-standalone New Radio’, which is code for getting the enhanced mobile broadband bit done before the rest is ready. “With this real-world achievement, DT is making its first important step towards a 5G network launch,” said DT CTO Bruno Jacobfeuerborn. “When the standard is defined, we will trial it in 2018 to prepare the ground for a wider deployment of commercial sites and the offering of devices for the mass market as they become available.”

“As long time partners, both Deutsche Telekom Group and Huawei have joined hands to successfully test 5G NR equipment in field environments based on latest 3GPP R15 standards,” said Huimin Zhu, 5G VP at Huawei. “These achievements highlight the capabilities of the 5G NR equipment to meet operators’ requirements for addressing new business opportunities for end users. Huawei is confident that the partnership with Deutsche Telekom can fully prepare the commercial launch of 5G NR services in Europe by 2020 thanks to 3GPP standardization efforts.”

This was just one of a frenzy of announcements from DT at the show. Its EntertainTV video-on-demand is getting a boost with a bunch of premium content including a range of classic German movies. DT has also launched a rather forced-sounding digital lifestyle sub-brand called #JETZMAGENTA. Repeated reading of the announcement shed no light on what the point of it is, so instead here’s a photo of it at the show.