Ericsson, Intel and Telstra deliver 5G low-latency to gamers FTW

As 5G demos move into their practical phase, Ericsson, Intel and Telstra decided to show how 5G will enable gamers to compete over mobile with no performance penalty.

A lot of professional gaming relies on quick movements and reflexes to get one step ahead of your opponent, a characteristic it shares with physical combat sports. So any technological factors that delay a gamer’s actions, even by a fraction of a second, can prove virtually fatal. The latency experienced by mobile networks has, thus far, made them impractical for use by pro gamers and this demo was designed to show that, with 5G, those dark days are behind us.

It returned data transfer latency rates of 5-6 milliseconds, four times lower than current average 4G latency speeds. The demo was conducted in Telstra’s 5G Innovation Centre in Australia’s Gold Coast, using Ericsson and Intel kit over mmWave spectrum, and professional Australian gamers The Chiefs were drafted in to provide extra authenticity

“This gaming demonstration is a real-life example of how 5G might be used in the future,” said Telstra Executive Director Network and Infrastructure Engineering, Channa Seneviratne. “Latency is the time it takes for data to be sent between two points, so it is crucial in the world of gaming when milliseconds can literally mean the difference between winning and losing. eSports demonstrates how that is possible over 5G, a benefit of the new technology that will underpin a host of use cases.”

Ericsson and Intel spokespeople said pretty much the same. While this is a nice demo it’s not clear how much demand there is for competitive gaming over mobile networks. If it’s that important then its presumably not something people will do on their phones on the way to the shops. But as an illustration of a cool new use-case that may capture the imagination of a broader audience then just those of us who obsess about this sort of thing for a living then it has some value.