Telekom, BME and Ericsson: Joint Research on 5G

Magyar Telekom, the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME) and Ericsson Hungary have launched a research and development project in the field of 5G, the fifth-generation mobile technology.

A press statement by Magyar Telekom says that leveraging on the frequencies provided by Magyar Telekom for BME’s educational and research purposes, Ericsson has built and operates a 5G test network in BME’s “I” building. The parties’ aim is to explore the potential use of 5G-based solutions in agriculture and smart manufacturing.

Within the frame of the cooperation, Magyar Telekom assigns 20MHz from its 3600MHz band and 10MHz from its 2600MHz band to the Budapest University of Technology and Economics from its own frequency range, free of charge, for R&D purposes. With the use of the frequencies temporarily provided by Magyar Telekom, Ericsson Hungary operates a 5G test network in BME’s “I” building and in the research laboratory of Ericsson's R&D center. The test network is planned to operate both in NSA (non-standalone, i.e. built on 4G) as well as SA (standalone) mode - the latter allowing an even broader use case support, thus leveraging the R&D activities on the full potential of the 5G technology. The local 5G test network has restricted access and can only be used by BME’s designated lecturers and students, as well as the two company’s staff in charge of the planned activities. The applications and solutions developed on the test network are presented jointly by the involved parties.

Lubor Zatko, Telekom’s Chief Technical Officer commented on the cooperation by saying that “the next generation 5G mobile technology brings not only new opportunities for consumers, but also helps industry, logistics, agriculture and many other verticums to step up to a much higher level of digitalization than ever before. However, this requires solutions and applications that can take advantage of the outstanding features of 5G technology, and thus create added value. To ensure that 5G networks deliver such tangible benefits both from a business and economic perspective, using Magyar Telekom’s network, T-Systems Hungary is working on concrete business solutions, among others, in the field of industry and transportation. We are proud that we do not only continuously increase the domestic coverage of our 5G network, but with the recently announced cooperation we also support educational and research objectives that help us to explore actual usage needs and to find solutions that may be used by our customers in the future.”

Dr. János Józsa, Rector of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics said they were pleased that thanks to Magyar Telekom and Ericsson, a complex 5G test infrastructure has been set up in the “I” building, which can support the university's R&D activities. "The network is used by the consortium of Ericsson Hungary and the BME’s Telecommunications and Media Infocommunications Department on the research and development of the automated operation of the 5th generation mobile communication system, the implementation of 5G-based services and the development of industrial and agricultural applications. The consortium demonstrates the benefits of 5G systems with smart agricultural applications and the control of real-time automated cooperative robots.”

The Head of Strategy Central Europe at Ericsson, Roland Jakab pointed out that “the consortium established by BME and Ericsson launched a project to develop 5G software and pilot applications already in 2019, which represents a new dimension in the decades-long cooperation between Ericsson and BME. As part of the project Ericsson has built a complete 5G test network that will operate both indoors and outdoors in the BME’s “I” building and is also accessible in the research laboratory of Ericsson's R&D center. On the new 5G test network one may test applications, use cases and functions that are not yet available on a live network. The significance of this development is that the testing of software under development can be started at an early stage, which significantly speeds up the market entry of an application.”