Sweden-based equipment vendor Ericsson and US-headquartered chipmaker Intel completed an end-to-end interoperability test on the 3.5GHz band as part of China’s pre-standard 5G trials.

The multi-vendor field trials in Beijing used Ericsson’s 5G radio test bed and Intel’s 5G client test platform. The radio prototype used 5G candidate technology, including massive MIMO, multi-user MIMO and beamforming.

China’s three major mobile operators already announced plans to roll out 5G in the 3.5GHz band.

The 5G technology R&D test on the 3.5GHz band is being led by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). With the completion of the first over the air interface of interoperability verification, MIIT is now one step closer to making 5G on the 3.5GHz band a reality in China, Ericsson said in a statement.

Mobile operators in China are in the second of a multi-phase testing period for 5G networks which runs until 2019. All three operators plan to launch 5G commercially in 2020.