Celcom Axiata and Ericsson conduct 28-GHz 5G lab trial in Malaysia

celcom axiata
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Celcom Axiata and Ericsson claim they have performed Malaysia’s first ever 5G trial, as well as the first 5G trial in South East Asia conducted on the 28-GHz band.

The lab trial demonstration featured 5G radio prototypes, achieving a peak throughput up to 18 Gbps and latency as low as 3 milliseconds. It also demonstrated 5G use cases such as robotic control, connected environment, virtual reality, IoT applications and 4K video streaming over 5G – from video capture at the server end to playback on the 5G prototype device.

The trial is the product of the 5G MoU signed by Celcom and Ericsson at MWC17 in Barcelona earlier this year that paved the way for a joint partnership to evaluate opportunities for 5G and IoT in Malaysia – which the two companies say also support the government’s “Digital Malaysia” vision that calls for the creation of a developed digital economy by 2020.

“5G is very important to Celcom as it will support the development and meet the communication needs of consumers and digitization of various industries, said Celcom Axiata CEO Michael Kuehner. “It is critical that we explore this new generation technology and its capabilities with global partners like Ericsson.”

Celcom’s recently announced 5G roadmap will involve the deployment of key technologies such as 4×4 MIMO and 256QAM to provide users with data speeds up to 400 Mbps. In the near future, Celcom also plans to deploy IoT for “digital and connected living” apps.

Todd Ashton, Head of Ericsson Malaysia & Sri Lanka, said the 5G trial follows on the success of the Innovation Center for 5G that the company set up last year with Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.

Ericsson’s recent 5G Business Potential report estimates that 5G could potentially generate global revenues as high as $582 billion by 2026, with manufacturing and energy sectors representing the biggest opportunity for revenues created or enhanced by 5G.

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