China Telecom, Ericsson and MediaTek achieve 5G SA data call

Ericsson and China Telecom have successfully achieved a 5G Standalone (SA) end-to-end data call on the service provider’s 5G trial network in Hangzhou using a commercial chipset-based terminal from MediaTek.

For this SA 5G field trial, Ericsson provided 5G commercial base stations from its Ericsson Radio System portfolio, the newly launched Standalone NR software, and 5G cloud core solution.

Ericsson’s 5G base station comprises Baseband 6630 and AIR 6488, which are deployed in commercial 5G networks across the world and can support both Non-Standalone (NSA) and SA deployment. Ericsson’s 5G Core, which is based on mature cloud platform, will also help to accelerate 5G commercialization and enable fresh use cases in new segments.

The successful SA New Radio (NR) field call on a third-party commercial terminal chipset is another milestone that further boosts the maturity of the 5G SA ecosystem. This achievement also comes on the heels of Ericsson’s recent launch of new software and hardware solutions to expand 5G deployment options.

In addition to supporting enhanced mobile broadband services, 5G SA also enables Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC) use cases such as autonomous driving, smart manufacturing and remote surgery. Standalone 5G also supports a new range of IoT services with technologies such as network slicing and edge computing. 5G SA has been planned as the 5G target deployment architecture by major service providers in the world.

In April 2019, Ericsson and MediaTek performed an interoperability development test in a lab in Ottawa, Canada, resulting in a groundbreaking 5G standalone end-to-end call on the 2.6GHz band based on 3GPP’s 5G December 2018 specifications. The successful field trial this week with China Telecom in Hangzhou was completed using a 3.5GHz spectrum, also based on 3GPP 2018 December specifications.