BT and Nokia have signed a new research collaboration agreement that will help push 5G technologies at a quicker pace. The agreement will see the two companies work together “on potential customer use cases for 5G technologies, the creation of 5G Proof of Concept (PoC) trials and the development of emerging technology standards and equipment.”
Although 4G is relatively new, 5G will advance the technology even further, allowing for the simultaneous streaming of data-heavy content such as Virtual Reality (VR) and live 360-degree video to any device, while reducing the latency. By working together on 5G technologies, Nokia and BT want to improve the flexibility and usability of mobile networks by reducing latency to support critical communications, enable greater power efficiency and higher bandwidth usage for different applications.
In its statement, BT said:
“The new flexibility [given by 5G] will be critical to support new business and consumer services based on IoT, including connected cars, smart cities and remote health monitoring applications.”
EE, which is owned by BT, boasts the biggest 4G network in the UK and is set to cover 95% of the country by 2020, at least according to Howard Watson, CEO of BT technology. With this foundation, Nokia will bring its experience of working on 5G technology that it has has been carrying out with Verizon in the USA, which got a 5G network up and running.
The work has already started at BT Labs at Adastral Park, Suffolk. Nokia is running trials of its latest 5G-ready radio equipment at the lab. 5G should be getting off the ground for consumers around 2020, with limited launches possibly coming earlier.
Source: BT via Broadband Choices | Image via Onedio