British mobile operator Vodafone claims to have conducted the “first European test” of “advanced 5G uplink technology” by harnessing the latest Qualcomm processors and Xiaomi smartphone via their 5G Standalone (5GSA) network, which enabled them to achieve faster mobile broadband upload speeds of “up to” 273Mbps.
At present most existing 5G networks in the UK and elsewhere are still using Non-Standalone (NSA) technology, which rely on some slower 4G infrastructure. By comparison, Standalone (SA) networks are pure end-to-end 5G networks that can deliver improvements such as ultra-low latency times (fast), better upload speeds, network slicing capabilities, better support for Internet of Things (IoT) devices, increased reliability and security.
The latest test builds on that by enhancing the uplink (upload) performance by harnessing a technique called Uplink Carrier Aggregation (UCA) with Tx Switching, which combines multiple transmission channels supported by the smartphone and the mobile antenna. This was paired with the latest silicon technology from Qualcomm (The Snapdragon® 8 Gen 3 Mobile Platform) and the next Xiaomi flagship smartphone.
The tests, which took place in both the Spanish city of Ciudad Real and on their commercial 5G SA network in Hannover (Germany), were able to boost upload speeds 35% to 54%, depending on the distance between the smartphone and mobile site – achieving upload speeds of up to 273Mbps (most NSA 5G networks in the UK today often struggle to get above an average of c.15-20Mbps).
Alberto Ripepi, Chief Network Officer of Vodafone, said:
“We want our customers to be among the first anywhere in the world to benefit from this new 5G feature when it becomes available. That’s why we are working with key partners to lead the industry in pulling together and testing the necessary network, silicon chips and devices to turn it into a reality, all while driving a stronger vendor and developer ecosystem.”
The announcement claims that “most of today’s smartphones and home broadband services are capable of an average upload speed of 100Mbps“, which is a bit of a sweeping generalisation as there’s a lot of variation, depending upon which country / location, operator and network technology you’re talking about (e.g. the best FTTP networks can already do symmetric multi-Gigabit speeds).
Nevertheless, better uplink speeds on mobile connections will naturally come in handy for sharing files, photos, videos and using cloud or remote gaming services etc. Suffice to say that any improvement in this area is welcome, although the complexity of deploying 5G SA and related enhancements suggests it may be a while before we can all benefit.
Vodafone has already launched a 5G SA network in the UK with their “5G Ultra” package for consumers (here), although its coverage is initially limited (e.g. parts of London, Manchester, Glasgow and Cardiff). But the operator, as part of their proposed mega-merger with Three UK, has also pledged to reach more than 99% of the UK population with their 5G SA network by 2034 and to push fixed wireless access (mobile home broadband) to 82% of households by 2030.