Orange Belgium in partnership with Nokia has announced it has demonstrated the first “proof points” of 5G technology. The telecoms operator said it is investing heavily in its network in preparation for 5G and has underlined its ambition to deploy the technology as “soon as possible” for its residential and business customers.

In the professional sphere, Orange Belgium said 5G will allow it to offer dedicated and tailor-made connectivity adapted to specific requirements of innovative applications such as smart cities, autonomous vehicles. wireless manufacturing, real-time automation, Internet of Things, and remote medical assistance

Use cases presented

At the Castle of Colonster in Liège, Orange and Nokia presented five use cases that seek to illustrate the potential of 5G. Orange and Nokia said with the exception of a speed test where speeds of 6 Gbit per second were reached, which they claim is the fastest speed ever demonstrated in a field demo in Belgium in 3.5GHz band, what is more important are the use cases.

They included the following:

• Autonomous cars: the interactive demo showed the importance of latency for communication between autonomous cars to streamline traffic. Players drove toy cars around a track and experienced the difference between a connection over 3G, 4G or 5G

• Live 360° camera and streaming via virtual reality (VR) glasses: the VR headset users watched videos with a 360° panoramic view, captured with a 360° camera and transferred over 5G, enabling an 8K live video. The camera was equipped with eight sensors and microphones for an immersive experience

• Balancing robots: three constantly moving robots had to keep a little ball in the centre of a plate that was balancing between them. This demo aimed to illustrated possible applications of 5G in the “factory of the future”, where 5G will enable real-time communication between machines thanks to the low latency and the high reliability

• Sector One, Belgian’s professional esports team sponsored by Orange Belgium, connected three gaming computers via 5G to play League of Legends, Hearthstone and Fifa 18.

“I am very pleased to be part of this milestone of Orange Belgium in Liège. We already demonstrated the advantages of 5G in Barcelona during Mobile World Congress earlier this year and we are working closely within the standardization bodies to develop the 5G technology,” said Stéphane Richard, CEO, Orange Group.

“We are committed to deploying the 5G networks with standardized, interoperable and enriched equipment and functions all across Europe.”

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