The Future of Mobile: Finnish Telcos Making the 5G Dream a Fanciful Hope

Finnish operators, Elisa and Nokia, carried out the first demonstration in the Nordic region of fixed wireless access using 5G radio signals, at Nokia's campus in Espoo, last month.

Matias Castren, head of the broadband subscription business at Elisa, said fixed wireless access “will provide an alternative to other fixed high-speed and high-quality fixed broadband connections in the future with wider coverage and in larger areas.” Mr. Castren was quoted on RCR Wireless News.

The 5G fixed wireless services will enable the extension of high-speed fixed connections to detached houses, Elisa said. The 5G radio signal is transmitted from a base station that is connected to the optical fiber network and located in a mast, or on the roof of a building to specific buildings.

In the test conducted by the telcos, as one test application, a virtual reality (VR) headset was used to watch a concert by the metal band Amorphis, filmed with a VR camera. 5G is ideal for this purpose, said Elisa, because of to its fast data transfer speed and low latency.

Tommi Uitto, Nokia SVP, Mobile Networks said the fixed wireless demonstration marks “another stride forward in our 5G collaboration with Elisa and further bolsters Finland’s position at the forefront of next-generation networks.” Mr. Uitto was quoted on RCR Wireless News.

Elisa has worked with Nokia on a number of network upgrades and 5G-related testing. In Finland, operator Elisa says it has established a true gigabit LTE network. Now it’s a matter of waiting for mobile devices to catch up to the network technology, which reps for the carrier expect next year.