Ericsson has submitted an application for authorization to conduct a 5G demo at Mobile World Congress Americas in September, while startup Phazr aims to show off its 5G millimeter wave equipment at the show as well.
Nokia earlier this month was granted permission by the FCC to conduct a demo of 5G prototype equipment at the event. The vendor plans to use a Flexizone base station and mobile unit operating at 27.5-28.35 GHz.
Rival Ericsson isn’t revealing much about its demo as it seeks confidential treatment of the antenna parameters, saying it represents trade secrets. “Ericsson would suffer substantial competitive harm if the antenna information for our research program were disclosed,” the company said in its application.
RELATED: Nokia gets OK to conduct 28 GHz demo at Mobile World Congress Americas
At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, earlier this year, Ericsson showed 5G using transmission points for 15 GHz and 28 GHz, providing what it called “excellent 5G coverage” throughout the entire hall. It showed, among other things, antenna beam forming and antenna beam tracking.
Phazr, which came out of stealth mode earlier this year, develops 5G gear for the licensed bands in the 24-40 GHz range and says it wants to use the Special Temporary Authority (STA) to demonstrate equipment operating at 28 GHz and 39 GHz to key customers at the event, which runs from September 12-14 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.
RELATED: PHAZR aims to deliver commercial-ready 5G products in H2 of 2017
The founder and CEO of Phazr, Farooq Khan, left his position as president of Samsung Research America last year to work full-time on Phazr, which in a relatively short time developed a 5G network solution that should be ready for commercialization in the second half of this year. Phazr’s approach includes patent-pending beamforming technologies and a router that can be user-installed inside a building that includes a 5G millimeter wave modem and built-in 802.11ac Wi-Fi for instant gigabit/second internet access.
Phazr isn’t the only startup to request authority to conduct a demo at the event. Artemis Networks, a 20-person-strong startup that claims to have technology that can “blow the doors off” LTE spectral efficiency, recently received authority from the FCC to demonstrate its technology in vacant channels in the 500 MHz band at the show.
The company will use the white space TV channels 22 and 24—518-524 MHz and 530-536 MHz—to demonstrate a new digital modulation technique that has implications for wireless networks that will use the recently awarded 600 MHz spectrum. The company is using available channels in the 500 MHz band because the 600 MHz channels in San Francisco are still being used by TV stations, but that spectrum eventually will become available after stations move out of the space.