Vodafone UK Start Testing Early Mock 5G Smartphone in Newbury

Mobile operator Vodafone has today announced that they’ve this week joined with Qualcomm and Ericsson to conduct “over the air” tests of their future 5G network with an early Smartphone prototype, which uses the latest Gigabit broadband speed capable Snapdragon™ X50 modem.

Qualcomm has previously boasted that their X50 modem “can replace” Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) based broadband ISP connections with a 5G fixed wireless network. This claim is partly based on the fact that their own internal testing of the new chip has already reached a peak total throughput of 4.51Gbps (Gigabits per second); albeit with 1-2Gbps being predicted by the company for real-world scenarios.

However today’s announcement doesn’t say how fast Vodafone’s own testing was able to push the device at their Technology Centre in Newbury (Berkshire). Instead we’re told that elsewhere their engineers in Salford (Greater Manchester) were able to download a 1 hour and 45 minute-length movie over 5G in just 24 seconds, which is of little use without knowing the video quality and total file size.

Nevertheless it’s worth remembering that Gigabit speeds will become a lot harder to achieve in a dense mobile environment, with many users sucking on the same capacity, as well as potentially less spectrum being available (until Ofcom releases more), interference and the ever changing environmental variables (i.e. end-users are constantly moving).

Nick Jeffery, Vodafone UK Chief Executive, said:

“We made the UK’s first live 5G 3D holographic call between Manchester and Newbury five months ago. Soon after, we carried the UK’s first 5G call over a live mobile network. Today, we are testing technology that will power 5G smartphones. Another first in the UK.”

Thomas Noren, Ericsson’s Head of 5G Commercialization, said:

“We’re making headway on mobile devices as an integral part of the 5G ecosystem. Ericsson continues to drive the commercial readiness of 5G by future-proofing this ecosystem. Together with Qualcomm, we continue to advance the testing of 5G NR networks with mobile devices and support Vodafone in deploying 5G across the UK.”

All of this forms part of Vodafone’s on-going pre-commercial 5G trial, which is currently taking place in parts of Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, Liverpool and London via the 3.4GHz spectrum band. Some parts of Cornwall, the Lake District and the Scottish Highlands will also be included.

However, until now most of those trials have focused on fixed wireless connections (i.e. connecting premises rather than directly to roving users). By comparison today’s news is all about expanding that to include the more familiar mobile environment. The first tentative commercial deployments are expected to follow later in 2019.