Russian integrated telecommunications operator Megafon has started testing Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) in the city of St Petersburg.
Test zone for joint use of 4G and 5G deployed on an area of 10 km2 in the area of Nevsky Prospekt and Expoforum and is available to all subscribers with devices that support the technology.
"This is the widest test zone with access to 5G class services in Russia without restrictions on the number of subscribers. Testing is carried out in the frequency bands of the existing 4G networks (FDD) and the new millimeter wave," said a press release from Russia's second-biggest mobile phone operator.
The maximum possible speed of mobile Internet in a combination of different frequency bands is 1 Gbps in the existing ranges and 4.1 Gbps in the new millimeter wave, subscribers can appreciate the shorter response time with an advantage of one and a half times.
“DSS technology is not a replacement for the main frequency range. Together with partners, we continue to interact with regulatory bodies and consider the 3.4 - 3.8 GHz frequencies to be a priority for the development of 5G. However, every new cellular technology requires more bandwidth," said Gevorg Vermishyan, CEO of MegaFon.
Gevorg added: "We will launch 5G in the target range and gradually, using DSS technology, we will be able to use the potential of the low-frequency bands of 2600, 2100, 1800 MHz to improve the quality of service and implement the functionality of 5G.”
Dynamic spectrum allocation will allow, in addition to the main ones, to use the frequencies used for the networks of previous generations. The 5G equipment deployed in the pilot area is based on Huawei’s SingleRAN Pro solution, which supports smooth evolution from 2G / 3G / 4G to 5G.
Incidentally, compatriot operator MTS also announced the launch of a pilot 5G 5G network in St. Petersburg.