China Mobile, the world’s largest wireless provider by subscribers, has announced plans to launch large-scale pre-commercial 5G field trials in 2019, laying the groundwork for a 2020 commercial launch, Telecom Asia writes, citing the general manager of the cellco’s technical department, Wang Xiaoyun. Explaining the operator’s roadmap for 5G, the official commented: ‘At this time we [have] finished field trials on key technology component validation and will focus on proof of concept system field trials this year, and move to pre-commercial trials for [interoperability] tests in 20 sites or cities in 2018.’ The trial is expected to expand to over 100 sites or cities in 2019, before the rollout proceeds to the commercial launch stage in 2020.
The operator notes that it has already established what it claims is the world’s largest 5G field trial – in Huairou district in northern Beijing – in partnership with equipment vendors Huawei, ZTE, Ericsson, Datang, Samsung and Nokia and chipset manufacturers Intel and Mediatek. The official added that China Mobile has carried out trials of key technologies with these partners, including: massive multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) using the 3.5GHz band; performance testing of mmWave spectrum on the 15GHz, 28GHz and 73GHz frequency bands; and tests of new waveforms (filtered orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, F-OFDM), new multiple access (sparse code multiple access, SCMA) and channel coding (polar code).