Ericsson, MediaTek and Oppo combined to successfully test voice and video calls using Voice over New Radio (VoNR) architecture, moving the companies closer to provisioning the full range of mobile services over standalone (SA) 5G.

Their announcement comes 11 months after Huawei announced it had completed the first VoNR call on its own end-to-end kit. At CES2020, Qualcomm and ZTE also claimed to have made the first call using the architecture.

The latest trial of the technology was conducted at Ericsson’s facility in Stockholm, using a modified commercial Oppo smartphone containing MediaTek SoC technology connected to a trial Ericsson SA 5G network.

In a statement, Oppo said compared to commercially-available voice services, VoNR provided significantly lower latency, and improved sound and picture quality for users. The device manufacturer added it aimed to provide a more complete 5G experience to early adopters of SA networks.

Ericsson in December 2019 revealed it completed interoperability tests for VoNR calls together with MediaTek.

Hannes Ekstrom, head of product line 5G RAN at Ericsson said the latest development showed “that beyond the high-speed capabilities delivered by 5G, we are ready to deliver on the voice and video calls that will remain important to consumers”.

“This achievement confirms our commitment to enabling service providers to offer a superior end-to-end 5G experience.”