Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Mobile

Qualcomm and Ericsson’s successful 5G New Radio test heralds next level of IoT

Thomas Hindmarch
By

Another day, another successful test for upcoming 5G technology: Qualcomm and Ericsson announced on Wednesday morning that the two companies had successfully completed an over-the-air call via 5G New Radio (NR) on the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS). The field trial, held at Ericsson’s American headquarters in Texas, was done with a Snapdragon 888-powered test device and a Snapdragon X60 5G modem via Ericsson’s Distributed Innovation Network.

“The promise of 5G NR in the CBRS band offers nearly unlimited potential for enterprise applications and industries, and we are excited to once again collaborate with Qualcomm Technologies in this industry-first achievement,” said Paul Challoner, vice president of network product solutions for Ericsson North America, in a press release.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

New Radio, initially developed by the international 3rd Generation Partnership Project, is the name for the radio access technology that’s been designed and developed for fifth-generation mobile networks. It’s essentially the ground-up redesign that communications standards need to cope with the data load that 5G represents.

Recommended Videos

CBRS is a particular broadcast band in the United States, between 3.55 and 3.7GHz, which was only authorized for full commercial use in early 2020. Under new Federal Communications Commission rules, a wireless carrier can use 5G mobile networks on the CBRS band without the need to obtain spectrum licenses from the FCC, though commercial access appears to be on the lowest access tier below federal use. Opening up a new part of the frequency band for wireless use, in combination with the new technologies that enable the high-speed networks in the first place, helped wireless companies free up a nice big piece of “real estate” on the electromagnetic spectrum to use for accelerated 5G data speeds.

The successful trial run of Qualcomm and Ericsson’s 5G NR call on CBRS is another sign of the imminent American rollout of 5G networks, and with it, what Challoner calls the “Industry 4.0 evolution.”

In theory, the CBRS band enables the deployment of private cellular networks with better data, faster response times, and more reliable connections. That opens the door to all of the next-generation options that 5G allows, such as widespread industrial use, digitalization, manufacturing, and fabrication, which can help take the Internet of Things to the next level, . Everything’s about to get much faster.

“This 5G NR call over CBRS spectrum is a significant milestone with Ericsson in enabling the full potential of 5G and will help address the increasing data demand and evolving use cases for wireless connectivity among consumers, enterprises, governments and other organizations,” said Francesco Grilli, vice president of product management for Qualcomm, in a release. “We are excited to create opportunities for deployment and to enable better user experiences in a wide array of scenarios.”

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Thomas Hindmarch
Thomas Hindmarch
Contributing writer
Thomas Hindmarch is a freelance writer with 20 years' experience in the gaming and technology fields. He also writes for…
What is 5G UW? The real meaning behind the icon on your phone
Woman holding up smartphone with speed test results on Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband network.

You've probably noticed that there's been much more hype around 5G than for any of the wireless technologies that came before. Some of that is just marketing, of course; we are living in an increasingly connected era, and there are far more people toting smartphones now than there were in 2012 when 4G/LTE was just beginning to go mainstream. However, it's also not an exaggeration to say that with considerably faster speeds and the ability to handle many more devices, 5G is a much bigger step into the next stage of global connectivity. You've also probably noticed it yourself with a "5G UW" icon at the top of your phone.

As with most new technologies, 5G comes with some new challenges for both carriers and consumers. One of the most significant of these has been working out the best way to deploy 5G services across the much wider range of frequencies that it's capable of operating on. This wasn't nearly as significant a problem in the days of 3G and 4G/LTE services, which all operated in a much narrower range of radio spectrum.

Read more
What is 5G? Speeds, coverage, comparisons, and more
The 5G UW icon on the Samsung Galaxy S23.

It's been years in the making, but 5G — the next big chapter in wireless technology — is finally approaching the mainstream. While we haven't yet reached the point where it's available everywhere, nearly all of the best smartphones are 5G-capable these days, and you're far more likely to see a 5G icon lit up on your phone than not.

There's more to 5G than just a fancy new number, though. The technology has been considerably more complicated for carriers to roll out since it covers a much wider range of frequencies than older 4G/LTE technology, with different trade-offs for each. It's also a much farther-reaching wireless technology, promising the kind of global connectivity that was once merely a dream found in futuristic sci-fi novels.

Read more
What is 5G UC? Here’s what that icon on your phone really means
5G logo on the Motorola Edge (2022).

If you own a 5G-capable smartphone — which are all of the best phones today — there’s a good chance you’ve seen different 5G network icons showing up in your status bar. It’s a stark contrast to the pre-5G days when your phone showed “4G” or “LTE” no matter where you went.

It can get a bit confusing to see a 5G indicator one moment and then “5G UC” or “5G UW” the next. It’s not something you need to worry too much about, as you don’t usually have much control over it, but it’s still helpful to understand what these different symbols mean — and why they matter.
The humble beginnings of 5G

Read more