Telus and Huawei tout successful 3GPP-compliant 5G trials

Canadian telco Telus has been trumpeting another incremental step towards 5G alongside Huawei with the completion of a 5G wireless connection using the global 3GPP technology standards platform.

The pair claim the successful completion of the pilot is one of most advanced connections yet made using technologies that will form the standard for global 5G. The speeds which are being discussed are all well and good, but perhaps not anything we haven’t heard before, but what is more interesting is the wireless case. Telus has said the trial demonstrated the potential for 5G technology to deliver Wireless-to-the-Premise (WTTx) connectivity with speeds and reliability necessary to power the fabulous use cases we’re all been pushing.

“We are extremely proud that Canadian-led talent and expertise is at the forefront of global 5G research and technology deployment. This is an incredibly rewarding accomplishment for our joint Telus and Huawei teams who have worked hard to bring truly state-of-the-art technologies to life,” said Eros Spadotto, EVP of Technology Strategy at Telus.

“These advancements will help Telus drive industry partnerships, develop yet-to-be-invented 5G applications and advance the 5G ecosystem with the ultimate goal of enabling future capabilities that will dramatically improve the lives of Canadians in our ever-changing digital society.”

The pilot is part of Telus and Huawei’s 5G Living Lab in Vancouver, where both companies have been trialling next-generation technologies since 2015. Wireless 5G technologies have been touted as being available as early as 2020, but Telus thinks that the progress made in the lab could open up the opportunity for Canadians earlier than that.

It might be a bold claim, but there has been some notable progress at the lab. Last year it achieved speeds of 30 Gbps in a controlled environment, while also successfully deploying a Heterogeneous Network (HetNet) in Downtown Vancouver.

“This achievement is an important step forward in aligning our research efforts in 3GPP 5G standard with the practical application for building and deploying 3GPP unified 5G networks around the world” said Dr. Wen Tong, CTO Huawei Wireless based at the Canada Research Centre in Ottawa.

“For the past several years, our Canadian team has played a key global leadership role in 5G. To achieve this successful trial in Canada with a Canadian partner is a powerful reflection on Canada’s 5G innovation capabilities.”

See, it does pay to be friendly.