Road to 5G: Ericsson, Magyar Telekom demo first 5G link in Hungary

Ericsson and Magyar Telekom are preparing for a 5G future with a joint demonstration of 5G New Radio. The first implementation of its kind in Hungary achieved download speeds of 22 Gbps.

Ericsson highlights the latest technology development for Magyar Telekom during its annual Innovation Day. At this year’s event, held at the Ericsson R&D center in Budapest, Ericsson engineers demonstrated the latest cellular radio equipment built on the pre-standard 5G New Radio (NR) 3GPP recommendations.

The demonstration was operating on the 15GHz frequency band with 800 MHz bandwidth. The integrated radio technology of NR enables downlink speeds that are upwards of 20 times faster than today’s technologies. Furthermore, the NR standard is capable of beamforming which enables point-to-point data transmission at very high speeds.

While major deployment of 5G networks is not expected until 2020, development of pre-commercial products, testing and spectrum is ongoing. Ericsson and Magyar Telekom, along with Hungarian government bodies, universities, network equipment vendors and independent corporations, are all part of the 5G Coalition in Hungary whose collective goal is to pave the way for the successful introduction of 5G.

Gábor Éry, Country Manager Ericsson Hungary, says: “This demonstration is a real milestone for our partnership with Magyar Telekom. This is the first time a 5G radio link has been established in Hungary and this implementation is helping to ensure that Magyar Telekom is well prepared to take full advantage of the potential of 5G.”

Ericsson foresees a huge business potential with 5G and expects that by 2026 there will be a market opportunity of USD 582 billion and the potential to grow revenues by 34 percent.

Kim Kyllesbech Larsen, CTIO, Magyar Telekom says: “5G means a brand new network concept which combines fixed and mobile communication. Its potential lies not in the speed only but in the built-in network intelligence and the collaboration with other technologies. 5G opens up new opportunities also for the operators and thus for Magyar Telekom to offer services connected with IoT and robotics for different sectors like the car industry, health or public service, agriculture, etc. The 5G Coalition tasks to make Hungary one of the European hubs for 5G tests and developments and our joint demonstration with Ericsson Hungary is a good example of the collaboration needed to achieve our goals concerning 5G.

Ericsson is designing a 5G future together with service providers. With experience from joint business and industry collaborations, we are applying early use cases to help our customers create 5G business today. To date, Ericsson has announced 36 5G MoUs - more than anyone else in the industry.