Ericsson on Tuesday announced that it successfully transferred data at a speed of 5Gbps in a lab test for 5G wireless technology.
Tech giants have started gearing up for 5G capabilities and Ericsson is the next to join the 5G bandwagon. The company, however, has said that such speeds will not be commercially available anytime before 2020.
The 5Gpbs speed is about 250 times faster than the standard 4G LTE speeds currently being offered, while around 50 times faster than the speediest LTE networks of 100Mbps speeds in Asia and Europe. 5G speeds can not only be used to connect mobile devices but also other objects and equipment using smart technology such as cars, medical equipment, etc.
Johan Wibergh, head of the networks business unit at Ericsson said in a statement that 5G is about getting everything connected while 4G LTE only makes it possible to connect people.
Ericsson’s test results are about 5 times faster than Google Fiber’s current speeds of up to 1Gbps download speeds on wired connections.
Looking at the other side of the coin, the speeds possible during the test may not be practically possible to offer when it is deployed because these tests are conducted under ideal condition without any other traffic to interrupt. However, the company said that it would offer what it has just proved.
Ericsson will have to work on standardizing 5G technology in order to make it accessible for consumers by 2020. The company has reportedly established partnerships with NTT Docomo and SK Telecom already to conduct more 5G tests.
Ericsson will face direct competition from Huawei and ZTE, Chinese vendors who use aggressive pricing as a means to get attention, to work on 5G speeds. The companies are getting the groundwork ready before it is time to deploy the technology generally.
