Ericsson, SoftBank Taking 5G Tests to Next Level

Ericsson and SoftBank said they're moving to a next phase of 5G testing, using 28 GHz spectrum. Japan’s SoftBank is the parent of Sprint. The companies noted in a Friday news release that 4.5 GHz, the subject of past testing, and 28 GHz are candidate bands for 5G in Japan. “The coming 5G trial will be conducted both in indoor and outdoor trial environments covering both device mobility and stationary tests,” the companies said. “The trial will utilize Ericsson's mmWave 28GHz 5G Test Bed solution, which includes base stations and device prototypes and will showcase advanced 5G technologies including Massive-MIMO, Massive Beamforming, Distributed MIMO, Multi-user MIMO and Beam Tracking together with multi-gigabit data rates and ultra-low latency which are becoming key requirements for future consumer mobile broadband and industrial use-cases.”