Nokia First to Achieve Live C-Band Network in the U.S. Reaching Speeds of Over 1 Gbps

Nokia today revealed that it has successfully completed a series of Over-the-Air 5G NR (new radio) trials in the C-band spectrum. The drive tests, which achieved stable peak throughput speeds of over 1 Gbps, were performed in Dallas, Texas.

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The demonstration made use of Nokia’s AirScale 5G base station equipment that offers huge capacity scaling, latency and connectivity by enabling all air-interface technologies on the same radio access hardware. The setup made use of 100 MHz of spectrum at 3.75 GHz with a 4x4 MIMO and configuration in Non-Standalone (NSA) mode combined with Nokia’s Core network.

Throughout the tests, Nokia monitored network performance and demonstrated that the ‘handovers’ successfully happened between C-Band base stations as expected. The connection and performance were stable the entire time.

Nokia’s C-band solution has a full portfolio of 3.5GHz solutions, including 64TRX and 32TRX massive MIMO for extreme capacity; 8T8R radios for deployable coverage solutions; 4T4R micro RRH for street level and venue deployments; and Indoor pico RRH to provide extensive in-building coverage. Nokia recently also revealed that it has achieved 5G speeds of up to 4.7 Gbps in OTA tests.

“The mobile industry is dependent on the allocation of new spectrum to increase capacity and deliver enhanced mobile broadband services. This test, in the C-band, is significant because it proves that we have a solution ready-to-go following the completion of the spectrum auctions in the U.S. later this year. We are already working with all major U.S. carriers and look forward to strengthening our relationship with them further by deploying C-band and delivering incredible 5G experiences to business and subscribers across the country," said Tommi Uitto, President of Mobile Networks at Nokia.

Nokia C-Band solutions are ready to deploy ahead of December 2020 and the firm is already supplying 5G services to all U.S. carriers.