Nokia Set a 5G World Record

Yesterday, in Finland, Nokia announced having achieved a new download speed record of more than 2 Gbps over a distance of almost 11 kilometres. 

More specifically, in the OuluZone test facility in Finland, their not-quite-real-world testing environment, Nokia achieved a 5G Fixed Wireless Access downlink speed of 2.1 Gbps. As well as this, they managed an uplink speed of 57.2 Mbps over a distance of 10.86 kilometres. The speed on its own is claimed to be a world record, and assumedly the speed/range ratio must be too. 

”We just set a new speed record for extended range 5G mmWave. This demonstrates that mmWave solutions will be an essential building block for operators to efficiently deliver widespread, multi-gigabit 5G broadband coverage to their customers in urban, suburban, and rural areas, complementing sub-6 GHz spectrum assets.”

Ari Kynäslahti, Head of Strategy and Technology, Nokia Mobile Networks

It’s a shame that mmWave tends to be bad news. It’s propagation isn’t quite up to par, which therefore means its penetration and range aren’t so great. Despite this, however, there’s plenty of it, which makes for great bandwidth as long as it actually can get to you. This is why the record over such a long distance is something Nokia are quite so proud of. 

To achieve the record, Nokia used 800 MHz of 24 GHz spectrum. The kit Nokia have contributed here that they’re so desperate to highlight is their Nokia FastMile 5G PoC CPE. Some features of this are shown in this video for further detail. It’s reported that this device is currently being trialled by major operators around the globe. With the device, high speeds over significant distances can be achieved. If it works quite as well as Nokia seem to think it does, it could become a significant contributor to the booming FWA market.