DT and Samsung strike standalone 5G success in Czech Republic

Today marked a new feather in the cap for both Deutsche Telekom and Samsung, who together completed a SA 5G trial in Pilsen, Czech Republic, famous as the origin of pilsner-syle lager. 

 

The trial saw the companies test the efficacy of Samsung’s MU-MIMO technologies on Deutsche Telekom’s network, recording excellent results with spectrum efficiency tripled compared to LTE under real-world conditions. Similarly, throughput was increased by about 2.5-fold that of single user MIMO.

 

“Together with strong partners we are consistently introducing advanced technical capabilities into our network, and we are very excited about the potential of 5G SA networks to further accelerate the 5G evolution,” said Alex Choi, SVP strategy & technology innovation at Deutsche Telekom.

 

Currently, Deutsche Telekom is somewhat reliant on Huawei technology for many of its European networks – a fact that is becoming increasingly problematic. The past year has seen Samsung capitalising on Huawei’s woes in various markets around the world, and this SA5G trial with Deutsche Telekom could be seen as the company positioning itself as an ideal replacement for the embattled Chinese vendor.

 

However, it may not be the traditional vendors who are set to win all of the network contracts with the likes of Deutsche Telekom in the near future. Open RAN technology is becoming increasingly exciting and the German operator recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Telefonica, Vodafone, and Orange, pledging to work together to support the development and rollout of this new technology. While the likes of Huawei and Samsung will not be troubled by the rise of the new technology just yet, the interest within the industry is growing steadily, suggesting Open RAN tech could be more significant threat to the status quo in years to come.