OPTUS AND HUAWEI SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETE 5G NETWORK TRIAL

Australian trial experiences ground-breaking speed over the air.

Optus and Huawei have successfully completed a 5G network trial, achieving the fastest speeds observed of a single user transmission over 5G in Australia so far.

The trial took place in Sydney, and reached a single user transmission rate of 35Gbps over the 73 GHz band. The objective of the trial was to explore spectrum efficiency at millimetre (mm) wave frequencies (above 30GHz), which are key to realising the promise of 5G networks.

The trial was a localised initiative as part of the 5G collaboration Memorandum of Understanding between Singtel and Huawei, and utilised technologies such as mm wave and Polar code[i].

Dennis Wong, acting Managing Director, Optus Networks said, “Australia is well positioned to take a pioneering role in the development of 5G technologies globally. We believe Optus, as one of the Australasia’s leading telecommunications and entertainment providers has the partnerships and the expertise to take a leadership position.

“The possibilities with 5G are endless. Through our strategic partnership with Huawei we are undertaking the necessary preparation, testing and trials to tackle the 5G opportunity head on.”

Yan Jun, Managing Director of Huawei’s Carrier Business Group said, “Optus and Huawei have taken a significant step forward with achieving the highest downlink peak rate in Australia as of today and we see this embarks a new mobile broadband era for us.

“Huawei began 5G research in 2009 and has committed to invest a minimum of USD$600M in 5G Research & Innovation by 2018. Since then Huawei has won awards for ‘Biggest Contribution[ii] to 5G Development’ in 2015 and subsequently ‘Best Efforts Towards 5G[iii] in 2016.”

Optus is working to lay the building blocks for Next Generation 5G networks – which will provide the capability to download a 1080p movie in seconds – and enable things such as massive Internet of Things, extreme broadband and ultra-low latency applications.

In October 2016, Optus implemented Cloud Baseband technology with Huawei which pushed peak speeds through inter-site carrier aggregation at the AFL Grand Final. Later in 2017, Optus will deploy Coordinated Heterogeneous Network and trial Massive MIMO (multiple-input and multiple-output).

These technologies are a pre-cursor to 5G’s Joint Reception and Massive MIMO concept.

Media contacts:

Steve Batten

02 8082 7850

media@optus.com.au

Geeke van der Sluis
02 9928 3867
geeke.vandersluis@huawei.com

[i] mm wave is the band of spectrum between 30 gigahertz (Ghz) and 300 Ghz. Polar Code is a coding mechanism used to demonstrate 5G.

[ii] “Biggest Contribution to 5G Development” awarded at 5G World Summit 2015

[iii] “Best Efforts Towards 5G”  awarded at the 5G & LTE Latin America Awards 2016