U.S. Cellular, the fifth-largest full-service wireless carrier in the United States and Ericsson have successfully completed joint testing of 5G in Madison, Wisconsin, achieving peak throughput of 9Gbps. The peak speeds of 9Gbps were attained at a distance of 787 ft, while at a distance of one mile the companies recorded peak speeds of 1.5Gbps.
Ericsson said it installed 5G radios on a tower currently in commercial service by U.S. Cellular. Using 15 GHz spectrum through an experimental license from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and run under varying environmental conditions to simulate real world use, the tests evaluated a number of new radio access (NX) carrier combinations to verify their benefits to network throughput and performance.
According to Ericsson, they have also tested radio resource sharing, beamforming, beam tracking, peak throughput and multi-user MIMO, among other measures of radio performance.
Michael S. Irizarry, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, U.S. Cellular
This latest trial with Ericsson demonstrates incredible 9Gbps speeds in an environment that was close to a real world scenario, and we look forward to collaborating with Ericsson on the development of standards for a healthy 5G ecosystem.
Rima Qureshi, Head of Region North America, Ericsson
We are pleased to work with U.S. Cellular in their efforts to bring the most advanced networks to the customers and businesses they serve, and these tests prove our capabilities in making 5G a near-future reality.
