Mitsubishi achieves 27Gbit/s in 5G test on 28GHz band with mobile antenna terminal

Mitsubishi Electric and Japanese telecom provider NTT Docomo report that they achieved a speed of 27Gbit/s over a 5G connection at 28GHz during an outdoor 5G test. According to the companies, this is a record speed for the use of mobile terminals.

A van was used for the test by Mitsubishi Electric and NTT Docomo, with a mobile terminal with antennas placed on the roof. While this van drove past a base station, placed ten meters away, a speed of 27Gbit/s was recorded. That became 25 Gbit/s at a distance of 100 meters.

These speeds were made possible by using a 16×16 MiMo transmission and a 500MHz bandwidth, using the 28GHz band. The test system also used beamforming, a technique in which the transmission tower and the receiving device first seek each other out.

According to Mitsubishi and NTT Docomo, a major Japanese provider, this speed is a record for the applied urban conditions. At the end of last year, Ericsson, together with Telecom Italia, achieved a download speed of 23.4 Gbit/s during an urban test. At the time, according to the two companies, that was a record for the 28GHz band used in an urban context.

The 28GHz band will be one of the frequencies that 5G connections will use. The advantage of this frequency is a relatively high theoretical throughput, although signals with this high frequency do not have a large range.