Ericsson and co achieve record-breaking 5G speeds

Ericsson, in collaboration with Telstra and Qualcomm Technologies, has achieved a 5G uplink speed of 516 Mbps, surpassing the previous record of 447 Mbps set in October. This is understood to be the highest uplink speed achieved on a live commercial sub-6 GHz 5G Standalone (SA) network.

The record-breaking performance was achieved using a single 50 MHz 5G SA carrier in the 2600 MHz spectrum band, leveraging Uplink Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD) Single User Multiple Input, Multiple Output (SU-MIMO) technology. Ericsson’s RAN Processor 6672 and Radio 4466, combined with the Snapdragon X80 5G Modem-RF System from Qualcomm Technologies, powered the achievement.

“We are excited to partner with Telstra and Ericsson to set a new 5G uplink speed record,” said Durga Malladi, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Technology Planning & Edge Solutions at Qualcomm Technologies. “The UL SU-MIMO technology, driven by our Snapdragon X80, represents a notable advancement in network uplink performance and capacity. This achievement underscores our dedication to providing innovative 5G solutions that address the increasing everyday data demands of modern applications.”

While actual consumer speeds won’t reach the level achieved in this new record, consumers with compatible devices in areas where Telstra has the necessary technology deployed will benefit from enhanced performance off the back of these advancements. Future implementations of technologies such as 3GPP Release 16 Uplink Transmit Switching and Uplink Carrier Aggregation will complement this capability, ensuring consistent and reliable uplink experiences across Telstra’s network.

The news comes just two weeks after Ericsson, Telstra and MediaTek announced they had achieved a peak downlink speed of 9.4 Gbps on a live commercial 5G SA network. In the lab Telstra drove the needle even higher, surpassing 10 Gbps in a mobile network using a non-commercial set-up.

The milestone was achieved at Telstra’s Innovation Centre on the Gold Coast, where a live commercial mobile site was equipped with an Ericsson Radio System base station running the latest 5G Advanced software. The latest MediaTek Platform provided the device-side capabilities to leverage the improved network performance. This achievement reflects efforts to combine multiple spectrum layers and advanced connectivity features, including New Radio Dual Connectivity (NR-DC) and NR Carrier Aggregation.

By integrating these capabilities into Telstra’s commercial network, this new benchmark shows the potential of collaborative efforts in pushing the limits of 5G technology for Australian consumers and businesses. Ericsson’s hardware (RAN Processor 6672, AIR 5322, AIR 3258 and Radio 4466), connected through Router 6675 low-latency cell site router to the Ericsson Packet Core Gateway along with MediaTek’s chipset technology, built a robust foundation for this achievement in Telstra’s network.

As with the uplink record, consumers with compatible devices in areas where Telstra has the necessary frequencies deployed will experience increased speeds. And as more applications require high throughput, the increased capacity supported by this new network speed capability ensures more users will be able to remain connected at the highest possible performance.

“With partners Ericsson and MediaTek, we have once again increased the peak download speed capability of our network,” said Sri Amirthalingam, Telstra’s Executive of Wireless Network Engineering. “This achievement is more than just a speed record; it improves the network’s capacity, which helps deliver consistency of service irrespective of time or location. We’re making our infrastructure work harder through engineering excellence to ensure the highest level of performance so that customers benefit from the most advanced 5G capabilities available.”

Image credit: iStock.com/Thitichaya Yajampa