Orange Spain and ZTE complete Europe’s first standalone 5G call

The mobile operator claimed that the voice and data call over end-to-end 5G network in Valencia was the first of its kind in Spain as well as in Europe. All other trials have been done over non-standalone networks.

The Spanish branch of Orange successfully trialled a voice and data call on a “100% 5G” network with standalone architecture, the company announced. The end-to-end solution was provided by ZTE, one of Orange’s suppliers. The test achieved a peak downlink data rate of 876 Mbps on one test terminal, and 3.2 Gbps with 12 test terminals working simultaneously in the same cell.

“It is critical to understand this new and disruptive technology, with which we could close the gap from our 4G networks to offer our customers the best possible 5G network in the world when the time is right,” said Mónica Sala, Director of Networks at Orange (translated from Spanish). “The know-how of ZTE is evident in achieving this milestone and we are very proud of the results.”

The live 5G networks today, in South Korea and the US, for example, are primarily providing enhanced mobile broadband services, which can be achieved with non-standalone mode, i.e. overlaying 5G radio networks on top of 4G core. This was the architecture that Huawei used when demonstrating 5G at MWC on Vodafone’s network. On the other hand, to achieve 5G’s full capabilities, including to provide virtualised networks (e.g. network slicing for a particular client) and to run the extreme low latency applications (e.g. automatic cars) there would need end-to-end 5G networks, i.e. 5G radio and 5G core.

ZTE was also obviously happy with the success of the trial. “It is a great pleasure for us to work hand in hand with Orange for technological innovation and 5G leadership,” Xiao Ming, President of Global Sales at ZTE stressed. Orange is one of ZTE’s two biggest accounts in Europe (the other being the Three group), so holding on and expanding the partnership is critical for the company that has been struggling in the mature markets.

Orange Spain plans to extend 5G trials to other industries including construction, energy, health, automotive, and tourism, to test out the use cases. The company also said that it is going to test 5G in a handful of cities with the support provided by Red.es, the country’s digital transformation programmes, operated under the direction of the Secretary of State for Information Society and Digital Agenda.