Sri Lanka's Dialog Axiata has announced the successful completion of what it calls South Asia's first fully functional 5G pilot transmission over commercial grade base stations and end-user devices.
The pre-commercial 5G trial was conducted in collaboration with the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL), using spectrum in the 3.5-GHz band that has been assigned by the regulator for 5G trials.
During the trial, Dialog achieved pilot speeds of over 2Gbps in a real-world setting using commercial-grade 5G home gateway routers.
In August 2017, Dialog Axiata conducted South Asia's first 5G demonstration in a laboratory environment, in conjunction with Huawei and Ericsson. The company said 20% of its base stations are now 5G ready due to the deployment of Massive MIMO technology.
“Reaching the milestone of enabling a fully functional pre-commercial 5G transmission as well as our investments in making a major part of our expansive island-wide 4G network fully 5G compliant, demonstrate our commitment to deliver to our customers, network capability and digital enablement on par with the most developed markets in the world,” Dialog Axiata group CEO Supun Weerasinghe said.
He praised TRCSL for leading the South Asian region through the early allocation of spectrum for 5G trials.
“Dialog will build on the learning from the pilot transmission and will work in partnership with the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka and the Ministry of Digital Infrastructure in leveraging the unique capabilities of 5G technology towards empowering Sri Lanka’s socio-economic transformation, enhancing productivity, efficiency and advancement of the country as a regional technology hub,” Weerasinghe concluded.