Celcom and Ericsson conducted a 5G trial in Malaysia, showcasing the future of 5G technology and the potential capabilities for a more connected world.

 

The trial featured 5G Radio Prototypes, achieving a peak throughput up to 18Gbps (Gigabits per second) and latency as low as 3ms (milliseconds). This is the first ever 5G trial on the 28GHz band in South East Asia. The nation’s first 5G lab trial demonstration was witnessed by Yang Berhormat Dato’ Jailani Johari, Deputy Minister of Communications and Multimedia at Menara Celcom in Kuala Lumpur.

The event also showcased many use cases, including robotic control, connected environment, virtual reality, Internet of Things (IoT) applications and 4K video streaming over 5G. Although the technology is still a few years away from rolling out to consumers, Celcom and Ericsson are set to drive technology innovations in Malaysia, supporting the government’s “Digital Malaysia” vision that calls for the creation of a developed digital economy by 2020.

Todd Ashton, Head of Ericsson Malaysia & Sri Lanka, says: “This collaboration with Celcom is a further demonstration of our support for Malaysia on its journey towards 5G, following on from the success of the Innovation Center for 5G that we set up last year with Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. Together with partners like Celcom, we will study and test this new technology to capture the full potential of 5G for consumers, business users and entire industries in the country.”

Compared to 4G, 5G will give consumers wider bandwidth, higher bitrate and lower latency. This all translates to faster upload and download speeds, as well as shorter time connected to the network – which saves your device’s battery life. As technology becomes increasingly connected and real time data a commodity, network speed and latency becomes more and more important. Technologies such as VR, AI, machine learning, autonomous vehicles, robotics and big data analytics rely heavily on fast access to data.

 

Celcom’s recently announced “journey to 5G” will involve the deployment of key technologies such as 4×4 multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) and 256 QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) to provide users with data speeds up to 400Mbps (megabits per second). In the near future, Celcom will also deploy IoT to enable digital and connected living. Both Ericsson and Celcom didn’t comment on a specific timeline for rolling out commercial pilot trials in Malaysia.

Michael Kuehner, Chief Executive Officer of Celcom Axiata Berhad, says: “5G is very important to Celcom as it will support the development and meet the communication needs of consumers and digitisation of various industries. It is critical that we explore this new generation technology and its capabilities with global partners like Ericsson.”

Ericsson signed a Memoradum of Understanding (MoU) with Celcom in Barcelona back in February. The MoU saw Ericsson and Celcom striking a partnership, cementing both companies’ commitment to bringing 5G and IoT capabilities to consumers in Malaysia.

 

Initiatives such as this 5G trial illustrate the many technological enablers needed to open up opportunities and realise the full potential of Digital Malaysia. 5G presents a huge opportunity for telecom operators who address industry digitalisation, with foreseen global revenue potential of USD 582 billion by 2026. Manufacturing and energy sectors represent the biggest opportunity for revenues created or enhanced by 5G.