While major deployment of 5G networks is not expected until 2020, development of pre-commercial products, testing and spectrum is ongoing. Ericsson and Magyar Telekom recently jointly highlighted the latest technology development at the Ericsson R&D center in Budapest, where Ericsson engineers demonstrated the latest cellular radio equipment built on the pre-standard 5G New Radio (NR) 3GPP recommendations, according to an announcement posted on the companyʼs website.

The demonstration was operating on the 15GHz frequency band with 800 MHz bandwidth. The integrated radio technology of NR enables downlink speeds that are upwards of 20 times faster than today’s technologies. Furthermore, the NR standard is capable of beamforming, which enables point-to-point data transmission at very high speeds.

“This demonstration is a real milestone for our partnership with Magyar Telekom,” said Gábor Éry, Country Manager at Ericsson Hungary. “This is the first time a 5G radio link has been established in Hungary and this implementation is helping to ensure that Magyar Telekom is well prepared to take full advantage of the potential of 5G.”

Ericsson foresees huge business potential with 5G and expects that by 2026 there will be a market opportunity of USD 582 billion and the potential to grow revenues by 34%.