Ericsson, SK Telecom (SKT) and Qualcomm have successfully established a 5G NR data call on mid-band over SKT’s live, 5G commercial network in Busan, South Korea. SK Telecom plans to launch 5G commercial services with 5G smartphones, built on the collaborative work with Ericsson and Qualcomm Technologies, in the first half of 2019.

The 5G field demonstration used a broader bandwidth on a commercial frequency, which was made available for operators in South Korea on December 1. The demo included a video call and streaming using SKT’s 5G commercial network, Ericsson’s commercial Ericsson Radio System products and a mobile smartphone form-factor test device powered by the Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ X50 5G modem and antenna modules with integrated RF transceiver, RF front-end and antenna elements.

The data call transmitted over the 100 MHz-wide bandwidth on 3.5 GHz spectrum and was the first field test using a broader bandwidth on 3.5 GHz. Access to new and wider frequency bands will bring higher peak throughput and more capacity needed especially in metropolitan areas to cater for the growing mobile data traffic. 

Under the 5G agreement, Ericsson will provide SKT with 5G New Radio (NR) radio, baseband, and Ericsson Network Management systems for its 5G commercial network launch.