T-Mobile US kicked off the New Year by taking its 5G trials out into the field in a multi-vendor deployment with Nokia and Intel in Washington State.

Nokia reported the outdoor 28GHz trial featured its commercial 5G AirScale radio equipment alongside Intel’s 5G Mobile Trial Platform. The combination allowed T-Mobile to launch its first multi-vendor 5G network in its hometown of Bellevue. Nokia said tests like the one in Bellevue help the companies understand both how mmWave 5G can be integrated with existing networks and how it coexists with 4G LTE.

In a statement, T-Mobile CTO Neville Ray emphasised the operator is “laser-focused on building a nationwide 5G network for mobility” and called the field trials “an important step forward”.

T-Mobile previously announced plans to launch a nationwide mobile 5G network by 2020 using spectrum in the low, mid and (high) mmWave bands. In December, Ray revealed the operator will kick off 5G construction in 2019, following a massive push this year to expand coverage with its new 600MHz airwaves.

The test appears to be the second 5G trial T-Mobile became involved in since 3GPP released its non-standalone 5G standards in December 2017. The operator was also involved in 5G NR tests at 3.5GHz and 28GHz alongside Ericsson and Qualcomm immediately following the standard release.