Elisa, Nokia and Qualcomm say they reached record-breaking 5G uplink speeds. Meanwhile, Finland is set to become a major hub for 6G research after establishing the 6G Finland Coalition.
The Finnish telco Elisa, working with Nokia and Qualcomm, said it reached uplink speeds of 2.1Gbps in a live demonstration at the Nokia Arena in Tampere, Finland. The speed will enable offering ultra-high-performing, low-latency services. During the trial, Nokia provided its AirScale base station in the 26GHz spectrum over Elisa’s commercial 5G network. The network was connected to a 5G device powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon modem. Nokia also deployed carrier aggregation technology covering four components of 100MHz each. This achievement comes more than 18 months after Elisa and Nokia reported they reached an 8Gb/s downlink speed on two devices.
Immersive experiences
The solution is expected to be fully deployed next year. Once deployed, it will enebale venue-based data services such as real-time multi-user 8K ultra-high-definition video streaming, and augmented reality content for smartphones or wearable devices for immersive experiences.
6G-FC
5G records may be broken, that doesn't mean Finland hasn't got its eyes firmly on the future. The announcement of the 6G Finland Coalition, a national public-private partnership tasked with advancing the development of 6G, is proof of that. It wants to bolster the global competitiveness of both Finnish enterprises and the national economy in the as-yet unstandardised 6G field.
6G-FC is backed by some of Finland’s leading technology groups and centres of 6G innovation. It includes Nokia, the University of Oulu (UoO), the Finnish Defence Research Agency (Puolustusvoimien Tutkimuslaitos), the state-funded VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, BusinessOulu, Aalto University, Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology, University of Helsinki, University of Tampere, and Oulu University of Applied Sciences.
Finland at the forefront
6G-FC will concentrate on building new international partnerships and increase the impact of Finland’s 6G expertise internationally. It will also intensify 6G cooperation nationally using a more prioritised and coordinated joint-action strategy.
Finland has been at the forefront of 6G research and development globally since the world's first large-scale 6G research program, 6G Flagship was launched in Finland in 2018. Currently, Finland also leads the European 6G flagship initiative Hexa-X funded by EU and plays a significant role in other 6G measures of the EU as well. The close collaboration of research institutes and companies in 6G Finland makes it one of the most notable alliances of 6G expertise in the world. Similar coalitions have been set up in Japan, the United States, and Germany.
