Spark 5G outdoor trial

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freitasm

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#231893 19-Mar-2018 12:45

Attending an event just now where Spark is announcing its outdoor 5G trial, around Featherston St, Wellington.

Plans for an Auckland 5G lab later in the year for clients to use to develop new services.

Huawei is their main partner. More on this later.

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#1979796 19-Mar-2018 12:46

wheres my invite dammit!

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freitasm

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#1979833 19-Mar-2018 13:09

I have some photos to post soon.

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#1979849 19-Mar-2018 13:32

freitasm

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#1979850 19-Mar-2018 13:33

The trial is an outdoor trial on urban environment. At the moment is just to test coverage and is using a special licence from MBIE to use some spectrum - the final spectrum allocation will come later this year.

Spark's Simon Moutter say 5G mobile devices should be in the market mid 2019. Fixed mobile around later this year.

The "security" robot was a gimmick to guide us from the hotel to the van outside.

freitasm

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#1979851 19-Mar-2018 13:35

The press release, just out now:

Today Spark announced New Zealand’s first live 5G mobile test site in Wellington, with Minister ofBroadcasting, Communications and Digital Media Hon Clare Curran becoming the first member of the public to run a 5G speed test achieving speeds of over 9 Gigabits per second.

That’s more than nine times faster than the maximum speeds available to consumers with residential fixed line fibre today, and 90 times faster than today’s most prevalent UFB 100 mbps service.

5G is the fifth generation of wireless technology and can be up to 100 times faster than 4G.* It uses new bands of radio spectrum with super-fast response times, allowing a full-length movie to download in just a few seconds.

The trial, located on the Stout Street Exchange Building, was deployed with specialist equipment and technical support from technology partner Huawei and is located directly across from Parliament. It will test speeds, coverage and the parameters of the spectrum in a real-world environment. The trial will be live throughout the month of March and connects with equipment in a specialised vehicle drive-testing the streets of Wellington CBD. Testing is being executed as device and equipment manufacturers work towards delivering 5G capable devices in market by late 2018.

Spark's managing director Simon Moutter says Spark is now moving 5G from a concept to reality.

“Spark is very excited to be leading the 5G race with this trial, and we intend to be at the forefront of deploying this technology in New Zealand once the required spectrum is made available. We want to be ahead of the pack in preparing for it, testing it, in deploying it, and we want to be the partner of choice for all of those New Zealand businesses who are starting to think about its uses in their industry. We’ve fast-tracked our plans and are committed to creating a 5G Lab in Auckland later this year, where customers can work with us to truly understand how 5G will change their lives and businesses.

“Many people have now heard of concepts like self-driving cars, smart cities, virtual and augmented reality. Unleashing the full potential of these concepts will require a fast wireless network with a super-fast response time. 5G will deliver significantly faster speeds and more capacity than previous mobile technology and will support the connectivity of multiple devices with very low response times. It will take us from a world of connecting people to each other and the internet to a world of connecting almost everything.”

He adds, “While 5G is expected to transform the way we live, work and play in New Zealand, by unleashing significantly more capacity it will allow us to extend our unlimited data plans for both mobile and wireless broadband—which is a great benefit for our customers.”

Spark Chief Operating Officer Mark Beder confirms the company is keen to launch in New Zealand as soon as the spectrum is available.

“We’re pleased to have had the co-operation and assistance of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment who were able to provide access to temporary spectrum to make this trial happen. Industry and government partnerships will be crucial to ensuring New Zealand achieves the full benefits of 5G opportunities as soon as possible, and we will be working closely with the Government to outline our future spectrum requirements.”

Huawei New Zealand Managing Director, Yanek Fan said, “Huawei is proud to partner with Spark on another first for New Zealand by trialling 5G. We have been a strategic partner of Spark since 2013 delivering its 4G mobile network, the world’s first deployment of 700mHz spectrum in mobile and most recently Spark’s expansion into 4.5G and smart stadium projects.

“At the recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Huawei announced two world firsts for 5G: a complete end-to-end 5G commercially ready solution and the world’s first commercially available 5G Chipset for a customer device. I am excited by the potential for 5G in New Zealand and our intention is to work with local partners to accelerate the 5G ecosystem to enable new experiences, economies and opportunities.”

Spark launched 4.5G in Christchurch CBD in May 2016 and is now the first New Zealand mobile operator to trial outdoor 5G capability.
The Stout Street exchange site will be tested over the next month as part of Spark's 5G preparation. It uses mmWave (26.65~27.45GHz) and C-band (3.6~3.7GHz) spectrum on a trial license provided from Ministry of Business Employment and Innovation (MBIE).
5G is not currently commercially available in New Zealand and this is the first live outdoor trial.
The live outdoor network trial in Wellington will continue until the last week of March to validate a number of tests and the equipment will then be deployed in Auckland for a 5G customer showcase. Spark will activate further outdoor tests in trials later this year.
*Peak rate of 5G is 20Gbps, peak rate of 4G at launch is 150Mbps—so over 100 times faster

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#1979853 19-Mar-2018 13:42

What kind of devices can use this technology right now? Are any of the latest generation mobiles compatible? Or is this more geared towards business/residential internet with Spark supplied network equipment?

freitasm

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#1979854 19-Mar-2018 13:44

No mobile devices - this will be next year. Initial wave seems to be fixed mobile later this year.

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langi27

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#1979855 19-Mar-2018 13:44

pretty cool, although 27Ghz goes about a far as an old man with a prostate problem.

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#1979860 19-Mar-2018 13:49

It's not like I need a 2-20Gbps capable mobile device....

But I'mma buy one. I already know I'mma buy one.

freitasm

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#1979863 19-Mar-2018 13:53

langi27:

pretty cool, although 27Ghz goes about a far as an old man with a prostate problem.

Remember final dspectrum allocation is not done until later this year. This is a special spectrum licence issued for testing only.

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#1979904 19-Mar-2018 15:02

I'm prob jumping the gun but how will this work in a rural situation where a cellsite/RBI site has to cover a fair amount of area?

Mistenfuru

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#1979906 19-Mar-2018 15:04

DjShadow:

I'm prob jumping the gun but how will this work in a rural situation where a cellsite/RBI site has to cover a fair amount of area?

C-Band maybe? with enough power you might get it a fair distance. The 27Ghz wouldn't get far though...

langi27

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#1979919 19-Mar-2018 15:18

Even 3.6Ghz is rubbish in rural, if you wanted good throughput you'd need good line of sight and would only get 500-1000meters from the site.

Single pine tree would wipe out your signal.

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#1979966 19-Mar-2018 16:23

I am really interested to see where they end up taking this with regard to fixed wireless broadband. I still believe that larger households will always need a fibre connection, but as a light user who doesn't have access to fibre this could be quite an exciting development for me.

Djmixerdomo

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#1979982 19-Mar-2018 16:44

I already go through a few hundred MB a month because I accidentally download something while on '4.5G'

Just imagine what would happen with a theoretical multi-gigabit connection :P

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