New Zealand telco Spark has announced the completion of a 5G Standalone (5G SA) trial in partnership with Ericsson and Red Hat, claiming it successfully confirmed and validated the technical capabilities of the technology on Spark’s network. The 5G SA trial was underpinned by Ericsson’s cloud-native 5G Core running on Red Hat OpenShift, integrated with Spark’s 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) network to test enhanced wireless broadband. The operator noted the trial, which was delivered within a three-month timeframe, demonstrated how 5G SA technology can deliver the low latency, high bandwidth and reliability that are required for high-performance use cases, such as real-time video analytics, when compared to previous wireless technologies.
Nilay Rathod, Technology Tribe Lead at Spark, explained the trial is part of the operator’s ongoing efforts to prepare for the future rollout of a 5G SA network at scale and to explore the future benefits of 5G. ‘This proof-of-concept trial with Ericsson and Red Hat demonstrates the potential that 5G standalone technology offers to our Spark network, opening the door on capacity and low latency to help accelerate Internet of Things (IoT) trends, such as connected cars, smart cities and industrial IoT,’ he said.
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