SMART Communications Inc. is carefully placing itself as the first telco in the Philippines to have achieved speeds of the future mobile-connection technology, aptly called 5G, even as it braces itself for big capital requirements with the commercial launch of the technology roughly four years from now.
Friday saw Smart partnering with Nokia in developing the product, with speed tests showing the telco giant achieved 5G speeds of 2.5 Gbps under the 100-megahertz (MHz) frequency. It also posted a latency of 1 millisecond for the first time in the Philippines over a “live” network.
With its capability to deliver extremely high speeds coupled with low latency, 5G opens up exciting possibilities for Internet of Things (IoT) applications for Filipinos, particularly in health care and smart cities, PLDT Inc. Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said.
“This is a key part of our efforts to transform the PLDT and Smart network into the country’s most future-ready data infrastructure, delivering a wide range of gigabit digital solutions,” Pangilinan said. With extremely low latency, 5G will enable a huge number of new use cases, such as remote surgery, real-time responsive robots for automated industrial production, virtual and augmented reality and autonomous driving.
Utilizing content created with the Nokia Ozo virtual reality (VR) camera, the demo showcased the possibilities enabled through the broadcast of rich, immersive 3D 360 VR content.
The demo also leveraged the Nokia AirFrame Data Center platform to support high-performance and low-latency requirements. Smart has a proven record of investing in the Internet of Things and Machine-to-Machine applications, and 5G will be critical in realizing their full vision.
“We look forward to working with Nokia and taking advantage of its leadership and proven expertise in the 5G space,” said Joachim Horn, who sits as chief technology and information advisor at Smart.
Nokia is at the forefront of 5G research and standardization, and its research and development (R&D) centers across the globe including the Manila facility, are helping to bring the company’s 5G vision closer to reality.