Major International 5G Trials and Pilots – 5G Observatory

The four main players have already launched 5G.

Spectrum for 5G was identified in July 2016 by the FCC (10.85 GHz in the 28 GHz (27.5-28.35 GHz), 37 GHz (37-38.6 GHz) and 39 GHz (38.6-40 GHz) bands, and in an unlicensed band at 64-71 GHz). 24 and 28 GHz spectrum was auctioned in the first half 2019. The FCC auctioned the upper bands in early 2020.

A specific fund for 5G was opened in 2016.

5G spectrum

The FCC voted in 2016 for the release and development of nearly 11 GHz of high-frequency spectrum intended to be used for fixed and mobile broadband bandwidth uses: 3.85 GHz to be assigned under licences in the bands 27.5-28.35 GHz and 37-40 GHz and 7 GHz, under general authorization, in the band 64-71 GHz.

July 2016: the FCC made available a total of 10.85 GHz in the 28 GHz (27.5-28.35 GHz), 37 GHz (37-38.6 GHz) and 39 GHz (38.6-40 GHz) bands, and in an unlicenced band at 64-71
November 2017: the FCC made available an additional 1700 MHz of high band spectrum for flexible terrestrial wireless use in the 24 GHz (24.25-24.45/24.74-25.25 GHz) and 47 GHz (47.2-48.2 GHz) bands.
March 2018: the FCC announced that it would like to held auctions of the 28 GHz and 24 GHz bands by the end of the year (November 2018 for the 28 GHz auction).
June 2018: the FCC voted to proceed with making the upper 26 GHz (25.25–27.5 GHz) and 42 GHz (42–42.5 GHz) bands available for 5G services, while examining further aspects of the bands already in the 5G pipeline. The auction for the 28 GHz spectrum (27.5-28.35 GHz) and 24 GHz spectrum (24.25-24.45-24.75-25.25 GHz) is scheduled to begin on November 14, 2018.
July 2018: the FCC is considering options for up to 500 MHz of spectrum in the 3.7-4.2 GHz frequencies. Satellite companies currently use the frequencies.

28 GHz auctions results:
- The FCC’s auction of residual 28 GHz16 (27.5-28.35 GHz) frequencies began on November 14th, 2018. The auction closed on January 24th, 2019 when a round ended without bids placed.
- According to the FCC Auction Bidding System Public Reporting System (PRS), winning bids reached 702.6 MUSD on Jan. 24th, 2019, after 38 days of bidding and 176 rounds completed. The residual licences were sold on a county basis. Two blocks of 425 MHz were available.
24 GHz spectrum (24.25–24.45 GHz + 24.75–25.25 GHz) auctions started in March 2019 and ended on May 28, 2019. 24 GHz frequencies were auctioned in 100 MHz blocks and sold by partial economic areas (PEAs, PEAs are larger than counties). In total, the auction raised 2.02 billion USD.
The Federal Communications Commission announced the conclusion of Auction 103 in March 2020. This is its third auction of 5G suitable millimetre wave spectrum to date. The process started in December 2019 and involved frequencies in the upper 37GHz, 39GHz, and 47GHz bands, offering a total of 3,400 MHz of spectrum. The auction bid reached 7.6 billion USD (6.9 billion EUR). The price per MHz per capita for 10 years is 0.06 cEUR. The amount is much inferior to the price of past auctions in the 24 and 28 GHz bands.

Verizon spent 1.6 billion USD (1.45 billion EUR) on 4,490 licenses in 411 areas. AT&T dropped nearly 1.2 billion USD (1.09 billion EUR) on 3,267 licenses in 411 areas. T-Mobile spent a total of 873 million USD (793 million EUR) in the auction and won 2,384 spectrum licenses covering 399 areas. Sprint bid almost 114 million USD (103 million EUR) on 127 licenses in 38 areas.

The FCC is planning two more spectrum auctions in They include a CBRS 3.5GHz auction that is planned to begin in June 2020 and another C-band auction that is expected to begin in December 2020.

5G trials

Verizon

Since 2017, Verizon has been testing mm-wave 5G services in 11 cities (in Ann Arbor, Atlanta, Bernardsville, Brockton, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Miami, Sacramento, Seattle, and Washington, DC.). Verizon demonstrated a video 5G call at the 2018 Super Bowl and a NR data lab transmission with Nokia and Qualcomm in February 2018. In June 2018, Verizon tested two-way data transmission and multi-carrier aggregation and very high speeds outdoors. In August 2018, Verizon succeeded in transmitting a 5G signal to a moving vehicle.

In August 2018, Verizon and Nokia achieved a transmission of 5G NR signal to a receiver situated in a moving vehicle using spectrum in the 28 GHz band, in a trial carried out in New Jersey. In September 2018, Verizon, in partnership with Nokia, completed the transmission of a 5G mobile signal to a test van in Washington. The test was carried out with Verizon’s mm-wave spectrum and 5G network core, along with Nokia’s 5G radio equipment.

In September 2018, Verizon successfully transmitted a 5G signal on a commercial 5G NR network in Washington DC and Minneapolis on prototype devices.

AT&T

In November 2018, AT&T showcased its first mobile 5G device using mm-wave spectrum as well as the ‘first mm-wave mobile 5G browsing session’ in Waco, Texas. The described device is a NETGEAR Nighthawk based on Qualcomm Snapdragon X50 5G modem.

AT&T also achieved tests of wireless 5G data transfer over mm-wave spectrum bands, via a mobile form factor device. The trial was carried out in Waco, Texas.

Sprint

The company started trials in 2017 in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, and Washington DC. In June 2016, Sprint demonstrated a 5G trial using 73 GHz frequencies.

In May 2017 Sprint, SoftBank and vendor Qualcomm Technologies announced an agreement to collaborate on the development of the 3GPP 5G New Radio (NR) standard for 2.5GHz spectrum.

T-Mobile

The operator completed with Nokia in June 2018, ‘the nation’s first bi-directional over-the-air 5G data session on a 3GPP-compliant 5G New Radio system’. It conducted with a user equipment simulator and Nokia’s 3GPP-compliant high-capacity 5G solution in the 28GHz frequency.

AT&T demonstrated with Nokia in November 2018, a 5G data transmission using its 600 MHz spectrum.

In January 2019, the company teamed up with Ericsson and Intel in Las Vegas to make a 5G data call and video call on a live 600MHz network. T-Mobile also accomplished a tri-band 5G video call with three users on different spectrum bands: 600MHz, 28GHz and 39GHz.