Trials of 5G mobile technology at the TELUS and Huawei “5G Living Lab” in Vancouver have achieved ground-breaking wireless speeds of nearly 30 Gbps – 200 times faster than today’s LTE standard

[Vancouver, Canada, Oct 18, 2016] As carriers around the world work towards developing the next generation of wireless technology, TELUS, Canada's fastest-growing national telecommunications company, and Huawei, one of the world's largest telecommunications and ICT (information and communications technology) suppliers are a step closer to the future after successfully achieving wireless speeds of 29.3 Gbps.

These ground-breaking trials are laying the foundation for 5G, which will enable the likes of driverless cars; smart homes, businesses and cities; new innovations in healthcare; as well as yet-to-be-imagined applications, devices and services powered by astonishingly fast and reliable wireless connections.

The speed tests took place in the heart of TELUS and Huawei’s 5G Living Lab in Vancouver, where both companies have been trialing next generation technologies since late last year in a live, real-world setting. While 5G is anticipated to become mainstream by 2020, TELUS customers living in the Vancouver area will have early access to some of the most cutting-edge wireless technologies in the world.

“While we innovate towards the future of wireless standards with our 5G live trial, our feet are firmly rooted in the present; the Living Lab will allow us to deploy continuously faster and more reliable network technologies for our customers in real time,” said Eros Spadotto, TELUS’ Executive Vice President of Technology Strategy. “We’re still in the early days of determining what the deployment of 5G will look like, but what we do know is that it will be a quantum leap forward in wireless technology and the foundation of future innovations.”

In addition to the successful 29.3 Gbps field trial of 5G, one 4G LTE wireless site in Vancouver has also been upgraded with the latest advancement in LTE-Advanced Pro technologies capable of speeds of up to 1 Gbps –10 times faster than current LTE-Advanced speeds. Five more sites will be upgraded in the coming weeks, and TELUS customers will be able to take advantage of these technologies as early as next year, as LTE-Advanced Pro compatible devices become available.

“This is a tremendous achievement for our TELUS and Huawei 5G Living Lab Partnership,” said Sean Yang, President Huawei Canada. “We are also extremely proud that much of the technology used in this trial is a result of the leadership of our Huawei Canada Research Centre team. Huawei’s Canada Research Centre has become one of the global pioneers 5G technology. The success of the trial today, with a great Canadian partner in TELUS, reinforces the important role Canada is playing in leading global 5G technology development.”

TELUS’ advancements towards 5G builds on the company’s $1-billion investment to connect Vancouver to the TELUS PureFibre network, which will ultimately provide the backbone to support lightning-fast wireless speeds as the development roadmaps for wireless and wireline networks converge around 5G concepts. The PureFibre network will provide nearly limitless capacity to support the highly efficient, reliable and blazing-fast wireless speeds 5G will enable for customers, heightening the importance of TELUS’ fibre investments across Canada.

The Seventh Annual Mobile Broadband (MBB) Forum will be held in Tokyo, Japan on November 23 to 25, 2016. The world's top operators along with key industry decision-makers, policymakers and influencers will attend to discuss the hottest trends in the MBB ecosystem, and explore the future of mobile broadband. For more info, please visit: http://www.huawei.com/minisite/hwmbbf16/en/index.html