T-Mobile US teamed with the city of Bellevue, Washington to employ 5G and cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) capabilities to enable near real-time communications between vehicles, infrastructure and road users to reduce traffic-related fatalities.

The joint project will see the city evaluate various C-V2X use cases by employing compatible T-Mobile equipment, along with its 5G network, IoT products, technical integration and testing capabilities.

Bellvue will assess the technology’s potential to improve road safety across all forms of transport by enabling vehicles and traffic infrastructure to trade information and create notifications.

A T-Mobile representative told told Mobile World Live the project uses its LTE CAT-M infrastructure, which works on all of its 4G bands, for the C-V2X element.

It will also employ 5.9GHz in tandem with an experimental Federal Communications Commission licence for direct C-V2X.

Deployment is scheduled to start next month: initially, C-V2X will be tested in areas with speed restrictions, school zones, pedestrian crossings and traffic light-controlled junctions.

A mobile app will warn drivers about potential dangers.

The C-V2X sector represents a growth opportunity for operators, with 5G providing the required low-latency at the network edge.