Vodafone UK, Qualcomm Technologies Inc. and Ericsson have begun ‘over the air’ tests using 5G technology and a device similar in size to the 5G mobile phones that are being developed.
Vodafone has begun lab tests of a 5G smartphone ‘form factor’ test device with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X50 5G modem using Ericsson radio equipment at the Vodafone Technology Centre in Newbury, Berkshire.
The telco’s engineers in Salford (where it is currently trialling 5G) downloaded an hour and 45 minute-length film over 5G in just 24 seconds. The same film over fast 4G (using carrier aggregation) took one minute and 35 seconds to download.
Vodafone said the testing will also be used as it continues to develop 5G 3D holographic calls – which it first demonstrated last year.
