Singtel and Ericsson establish $1.5m 5G development center

5G
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Singtel and Ericsson announced they will jointly establish a Center of Excellence (CoE) to facilitate 5G development and deployment in Singapore.

Co-funded by Singtel and Ericsson with an initial investment of S$2 million ($1.5 million) over the next three years, the CoE aims to spearhead the development of Singapore’s 5G mobile network infrastructure to support future Smart Nation initiatives. It will also be open to Singtel-owned Australian telco Optus, as well as Singtel’s regional associates across Asia and Africa to encourage knowledge sharing within the Singtel Group.

The CoE’s mission also includes helping industries and enterprises understand the value of 5G in transforming their business and the importance of shaping their long-term planning. This collaboration will feature four pillars: upskilling, demos, live field trials and collaborations with tertiary institutions.

Activities will kick off in the later part of 2017, starting with Ericsson providing 5G expertise and conducting workshops, followed by field testing and hands-on experience to equip more than 100 Singtel engineers with critical competencies in designing and operating a 5G network.

5G demos will be set up in Singtel’s Comcentre headquarters to showcase future 5G application possibilities such as immersive experience via augmented reality, enablement of haptic feedback in surgical operations and remote medical education.

Starting next year, a mobile 5G test bed will be deployed to carry out live 5G field trials with key enterprise customers, said Martin Wiktorin, president and country manager for Singapore, Brunei & Philippines at Ericsson.

Singtel said it will also engage research and tertiary institutions on potential collaboration opportunities to test 5G radios and possible applications that can benefit from the high speeds and low latency provided by 5G.

“This is a critical next step in our journey to 5G,” said Singtel group chief technology officer Mark Chong. “We invite customers in various verticals, such as transportation, port operations and next-generation manufacturing, to start shaping their new digital business models with us.”

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