What is believed to be South Africa’s first live 5G session on a commercial-ready 5G mobile phone and network was demonstrated at Saturday’s Durban July horse racing event.
Vodacom completed the data session using LG’s V50 ThinQ 5G smartphone. It was carried using Nokia’s AirScale 5G radio network solution.
Andries Delport, Vodacom chief technology officer, says: “Vodacom has once again demonstrated what is possible when using 5G technology as we did at the Vodacom Durban July by demonstrating Africa’s first live, 5G data session on a commercially ready 5G mobile phone and network.
“Although we are still awaiting the allocation of 5G spectrum to launch the technology in South Africa, the future truly is exciting when we consider what we might be able to achieve once the requisite spectrum becomes available.”
The LG V50 ThinQ is one of the first commercially 5G-ready smartphones in the world. It has a 6,4-inch OLED FullVision display which uses LG OLED TV technology. The smartphone also has five high-resolution cameras, two at the front and three at the rear. The LG V50 uses AI technology to recommend photo-enhancing filters.
“LG is very focused on expanding its leadership in 5G by introducing leading-edge devices and forging customer-oriented collaborations with carrier partners such as Vodacom,” says Deon Prinsloo, mobile GM at LG South Africa. “The introduction of 5G in South Africa is sure to improve people’s lives, and will contribute to jobs, entrepreneurship, and create overall economic opportunities.
“Strong collaborations will be required to accelerate 5G commercialisation on the continent, and LG is ready to be a key player when 5G service becomes widely available in the region. Once the spectrum is allocated, LG will introduce a range of leading 5G mobile phones ready to usher in a new era of connectivity in Africa.”
The Nokia Airscale 5G radio network solution uses an active antenna, with 128 antenna elements (64 receive and 64 transmit) to deliver the latest 5G mMIMO (Massive Multiple Input Multiple Output) technology. It also supports the latest 5G new radio (NR) technology and can support concurrent 4G and 5G operation on the same radio.
Deon Geyser, head of the southern Africa subregion at Nokia, says: “We are proud to be part of this Africa-first feat with Vodacom, and are committed to supporting the operator in bringing 5G services to the nation. It will pave the way for socio-economic growth and bridge the divide, with innovative use cases and revenue models. Nokia’s end-to-end 5G portfolio and professional services can support Vodacom in its 5G vision.”
The live demonstration used a non-standalone network architecture with dual connectivity between the 4G and 5G networks, and which was standardised in 3GPP Release 15. Vodacom also used its live transport and core network elements which have been upgraded for 5G readiness including cloud core technology.
Vodacom was granted a temporary spectrum license by Icasa (Independent Communications Authority of South Africa) of 100 MHz in the C-band spectrum range (3.5 GHz range) for the purposes of the demonstration at the Vodacom Durban July.
This spectrum band is well suited to providing good 5G coverage, unlike higher frequency bands such as mmWave (26 GHz and above) which have poor indoor penetration characteristics.
Unlike previous demonstrations which used fixed 5G routers as the customer device, Vodacom believes this is the first live demonstration of a commercially-ready 5G smartphone working on a commercially ready 5G network in Africa.