Nokia and Verizon claim another 5G first

Nokia and Verizon has teamed up to congratulate themselves on achieving another 5G first; the first successful transmission of a 3GPP New Radio (NR) 5G signal to a receiver situated in a moving vehicle.

With the self-imposed deadlines for launching 5G services edging ever closer, Verizon has completed another incremental step in making the bufferless cat video world a reality. With two antennas set up in Nokia’s New Jersey campus, Verizon whizzed past the building with receiver and measurement equipment in the boot of a Ford KA (maybe, maybe not) and managed to successfully hand off the signal from one radio sector to the other, on 28 GHz spectrum.

“Unlike some of the incremental 5G technology announcements we’ve seen lately, tests like the one we conducted are significant advancements in the development of 5G technology,” said Bill Stone, VP of Technology Development and Planning for Verizon. “By taking these tests out of the lab and into the field, we’re replicating the experience users will ultimately have in a 5G mobility environment.”

“We are pleased to showcase the acceleration of the mobile capabilities in 5G,” said Marc Rouanne, President of Mobile Networks at Nokia. “Enhanced mobile broadband is one of the first services being delivered on Nokia’s end-to-end 5G Future X portfolio. As a result, we can help our customers meet their early 5G deployment schedules and initial coverage demands.”

It might not seem like the most exciting of tests, unless Carly Rae Jepson was on the radio, but these incremental steps are important. The last thing anyone needs is to be driving from Boston to New York, cream cheese bagel in hand, only for your passenger to fly into a fit of rage because the video of a panda farting didn’t work properly.

Next week the dynamic duo will be testing whether it is possible to tweet Elton John while climbing the stairs to the third floor as the lift is broken.