U MOBILE Sdn Bhd and Singapore’s StarHub today announced in press statement that they have successfully completed a multi-party roaming video conference call over 5G standalone (5G SA) technology.
The trial is aimed at paving the way for consumers and businesses in both countries to enjoy crystal-clear and lag-free communication and entertainment experiences regardless of their location in the world.
This significant industry milestone was done by organising a super-clear and lag-free 5G video conference among four roaming users – two with U Mobile SIM cards in Singapore and another two with StarHub SIM cards in Malaysia.
The video call was conducted via popular messaging apps on 5G-capable test phones for U Mobile users and commercially available 5G-capable phones for StarHub users.
Apart from the roaming conference call, a series of cross-border speed and ping tests were also done, which produced a result of over 1.3Gbps download speed and latency of under 5ms on average. This is up to 10 times faster when compared to existing 4G technologies.
“U Mobile is excited to have completed this significant 5G SA roaming trial with StarHub. As this is the one of the first of its kind trial in the world, the key learnings received will be extremely beneficial and it will be applied to accelerate the roll out and take up of 5G roaming services in Malaysia and Singapore once 5G becomes commercially available in both countries,” U Mobile’s chief technology officer Woon Ooi Yuen shared.
Woon added that when the technology is eventually commercially launched, 5G SA roaming would enhance cross-border connectivity needs between both countries especially for business communities and those who regularly commute between both sides of the border.
Meanwhile, StarHub’s chief technology officer Chong Siew Loong remarked: “At StarHub, bringing new and customer-focused innovation has always been our priority. First to unleash 5G non-standalone services for Singapore consumers and businesses in August, we are now delighted to have crossed another major 5G milestone with U Mobile in the journey towards 5G SA commercialisation in both countries.
“Our successful 5G SA trial with U Mobile is an exciting prelude to how 5G will enable everyone and everything to enjoy closer connections, remote collaboration and productivity boosts and unified communications wherever they are.”
According to the statement, upon gathering performance data from the trials, network teams from both companies would continue to collaborate to establish the right network configurations and settings for customers to enjoy the best 5G roaming experience when it rolls out commercially in both countries.
The cross-border tests were conducted on a trial 5G SA network infrastructure. In Singapore, the tests were done on trial 3.5GHz spectrum granted by the Infocomm Media Development Authority while in Malaysia, the tests were done using 100MHz C-band spectrum, via Apparatus Assignment by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission.
U Mobile selected Huawei as its technology partner for the purpose of these trials. – Oct 5, 2020
