Making ‘first’ claims with regards to 5G has become an art form of late, as the four national wireless carriers all jockey to capture 5G mindshare. The latest comes from Verizon and Nokia who claim to have completed the first 5G NR mobility call in a moving vehicle.
The milestone is important as 5G New Radio (NR) is the 3GPP compliant standard for this next-generation wireless technology. The test took place at a Nokia campus in Murray Hill, NJ in a moving vehicle, where a 5G signal in the 28 GHz band was handed off from one radio sector to another.
The vehicle was outfitted with a receiver and equipment to measure transmission statistics, in effect simulating a real 5G call. Verizon has been working with Nokia in what it claims is a series of industry firsts including “[a] series of outdoor data sessions over the 5G NR standard, and the successful multi-carrier aggregation to boost those signals into Gbps range, that took place in June.”
Verizon has spent much of their initial 5G activity focused on a fixed residential broadband service that they plan to launch later this year in four markets, including Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, and Sacramento. Their announced 5G roadmap says mobile services, as highlighted in this test, will follow in 2019.
“Unlike some of the incremental 5G technology announcements we’ve seen lately, tests like the one we conducted are significant advancements in the development of 5G technology,” said Bill Stone, vice president, Technology Development and Planning for Verizon in a prepared statement. “By taking these tests out of the lab and into the field, we’re replicating the experience users will ultimately have in a 5G mobility environment.”
