Elisa and Nokia claimed to have achieved the fastest data rates on a commercial 5G network in the world, reaching a combined 8Gb/s downlink speed on two devices.

The operator demonstrated the set up at its flagship store in Finland, employing Nokia mmWave equipment and a pair of Qualcomm 5G test smartphones. Each device achieved data rates of 4Gb/s using 800MHz of mmWave spectrum in the 26GHz band.

Elisa plans to launch a consumer mmWave offer in 2021.

Unlocking 5G potential
The network is tipped to unlock opportunities in high-speed video downloads, mission-critical applications, VR and AR.

Sami Komulainen, EVP of production at Elisa (pictured), noted the speeds reached were “a natural step in our 5G development and we want to explore the possibilities 5G offers and push the technology further to benefit our customers”.

He pointed to multiple IoT devices connectivity and new apps using as key future steps.

Tommi Uitto, president of Mobile Networks at Nokia, added the demonstration proved the capabilities of 5G for mobile broadband purposes.

“The next step is that we will introduce the ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC) which is very important for wireless robotics and the autonomous driving case, as well as the extreme machine-type communication (MTC) which is about extreme connectivity of IoT, very large number of objects that can be connected to the network”.

Enrico Salvatori, head of EMEA market at Qualcomm, added the test served as “evidence that the full 5G performance and capacity can be deployed also with mmWave”.

He expressed hope mmWave spectrum will be made available in more countries in Europe in the 12 months, adding Qualcomm was working with the industry to make it “a commercial reality”.