Nokia, T-Mobile US and Intel launch 28GHz trial

Nokia, T-Mobile US and Intel have teamed up to launch an inter-vendor field trial in Washington State to bring a 28 GHz outdoor 5G commercial radio system on air.

A data session was conducted on a 28 GHz radio making use of Nokia’s 5G commercial AirScale offering and the 5G Mobile Trial Platform (MTP) from Intel. The trio has claimed it is the first example of T-Mobile US to deploy an inter-vendor 5G network.

“We’re laser focused on building a nationwide 5G network for mobility, one that uses multiple spectrum bands, and launching field trials for mmWave spectrum is an important step forward,” said Neville Ray, CTO of T-Mobile.

“The path to 5G is paved with tremendous endeavour and innovative milestones such as our achievement with T-Mobile in Bellevue,” said Ricky Corker, Head of North America for Nokia. “T-Mobile takes great technological strides in its network evolution and Nokia is proud be a key partner on this journey.”

While it certainly shows some people are better at getting back into the work rhythm than others, it is another incremental step on the long, painful road to 5G. On a more positive side, there are certainly operators out there, T-Mobile being one of them, who are venturing further and further away from the labs. T-Mobile US CEO John Legere has repeatedly claimed his magenta army will be the first to have a nationwide 5G network, and evidence like this makes it an increasingly competent claim.

The trial tops off a good day for T-Mobile, as the operator also boasted about its customers satisfaction scores over the course of 2017.

“The secret for having the happiest customers isn’t a secret at all,” said Legere. “I’ve been yelling about it for years! Listen to customers, fix their pain points, give them a great deal and awesome coverage. You’d think even Dumb and Dumber would get it by now.”

No points for guessing who Legere is referring to.

According to data from YouGov BrandIndex, T-Mobile was ranked number one in customer satisfaction throughout 2017, while also holding down top spot for the percentage of customers who would recommend the service.