Turkey’s First Ever Test of 5G Technologies Achieved Speeds of 24.7 Gbps

During the tests, held at Turkcell’s Kucukyali Plaza in Istanbul, the Senior Vice President of Network Technologies, Gediz Sezgin, emphasized the importance of the company’s collaborations in the 5G area, saying: “This test on the 15GHz spectrum is also very significant as it points to the kind of future that awaits us. While we at Turkcell continue to work hard to build one of the world’s strongest 4.5G network, this trial also makes us one of the first companies in the world to test 5G technologies. Our goal is not only to make Turkey into one of the first countries to adopt 5G, but also to develop 5G technologies here in Turkey, in other words to make Turkey into a country that not only uses but also produces key next generation communications technologies.”

Ericsson Turkey CEO Ziya Erdem also commented on the test: “Turkcell is one of the world’s most active companies in the development of 5G technologies and we at Ericsson have been involved in a strategic partnership with Turkcell in this sphere for around a year and a half. Turkey’s first 5G test, which we conducted today, is a result of this joint effort. We will continue to work closely with Turkcell to pioneer 5G solutions and to support Turkey in its journey to develop and implement 5G technologies until the end.”

It is predicted that by 2020 there will be an average of 500 sensors in each home and that the number of smart devices connected to each other around the world will exceed 25 billion. 5G networks are expected to be among the most important technologies in delivering the high capacities required in such a world. Thanks to its Network Slicing feature, 5G also allows networks to allocate capacity and speed according to the different requirements of each home or even of individual rooms. For example, higher bandwidth can be allocated to a living room in order to allow users to stream 4K television shows over the internet, while the kitchen would be granted the smaller capacity needed to operate a kettle. The test conducted in collaboration with Ericsson on the 15GHz spectrum achieved speeds of 24.7 Gbp, and was also streamed live on the internet.

Having been working on 5G technologies since 2013, Turkcell will also manage 5G field tests to be carried out globally by NGMN in 2017 and 2018. Thanks to the high speeds offered by 5G, a 100 GB file that can currently be transferred in around 30 minutes at 500Mbps on a 4.5G network will eventually be downloaded in 30 seconds at 25Gbps.

Source: Turkcell release