Ericsson powers 5G, NB-IoT in Japan, China

5G

Ericsson is to demonstrate 5G on the 28GHz band with Softbank and underpin a NB-IoT healthcare network in China.

The 5G trials will be conducted indoors and outdoors on mobile and stationary devices, using Ericsson’s mmwave 28GHz Test Bed solution.

It will use the likes of Massive-MIMO, massive beamforming, distributed MIMO, MU-MIMO and beam tracking, the Sweden-based vendor said.

Hideyuki Tsukuda, Senior Vice President, SoftBank Corp, commented: “SoftBank started to verify 4.5GHz radio back in August 2016 and now 4.5GHz is becoming the leading candidate band for 5G services in Japan together with 28GHz.

“We are leveraging Ericsson’s Test Bed with 28GHz radio to validate a lot of advanced features at super low-latency and high throughput, which helps position us as a pioneer of 5G.”

The trials with the Japanese operator build upon demonstrations of the technology on the 15GHz and 4.5GHz bands last year.

Meanwhile, Ericsson will work with healthcare company AstraZeneca and China Mobile in Jiangsu to connect equipment with cellular IoT technology.

The vendor will also provide a network terminal management system, which it said would support the real-time surveillance and management of equipment.

Leif Johansson, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Ericsson, said: “The strategic partnership demonstrates how the government and the industry can work together to create an innovative ecosystem for China’s healthcare industry. We anticipate that AstraZeneca and Ericsson will play more important roles in promoting the development of IoT for healthcare in China.”

In January, Ericsson partnered with China Mobile Shanghai in a trial of IoT-technology that could local bikes.