The two companies started their 5G collaboration in 2018 with a 5G Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) trial in Cluj county, Romania, where Orange mobile customers became the first European users to experience at home 5G services. Now, the companies are ramping up their efforts to bring the benefits of 5G to users in Romania.

At Untold, which drew over 335,000 attendants last year, Orange Romania and Samsung have set up 5G use cases to offer immersive experiences powered by the 5G network’s ultra-low latency and ultra-high speed, unfolding the potential of the next generation technology for all to see. The demonstrations include real-time streaming of the performances, captured by 360-degree cameras built onto the arena’s main stage. The stream is shown at an Orange VR zone set up outside the arena, providing a uniquely immersive viewing experience to fans who visit. The companies are also holding an event demonstrating 5G download speeds reaching above 1Gbps, with a latency reduction of 50% on that experienced when using current LTE technology.

“With these successful demonstrations, we are showcasing the experiences that 5G can bring to Orange customers in Romania,” said Emmanuel Chautard, Chief Technology Officer at Orange Romania. “Together with Samsung, we’re showing live network capabilities, with proof that goes beyond just impressive speeds more centered on the customer experience.”

“5G offers more than just a faster connection; it enables transformative use cases that will benefit people and businesses across the industry,” said GY Seo, Senior Vice President and Head of Global Sales & Marketing, Networks Business at Samsung Electronics. “These joint demonstrations allow for a glimpse into the new kinds of services and capabilities that will be made possible as we unlock the potential of 5G for users across Europe.”

The trial at Cluj Arena, where the festival is taking place, makes use of Samsung’s latest solutions, including 5G Massive MIMO Units (MMUs), which support the 3.4-3.8GHz frequency band. Samsung 5G MMUs have already been rolled out across Korea by all three Korean 5G operators for use with their 5G commercial service, which launched in April of 2019. This commercially proven MMU is one of the smallest and lightest in the industry, making installation in existing cellular sites very straightforward.

Korean operators have been transmitting 5G signals in Seoul and metropolitan areas since December 1, 2018 using 5G base station radios and 5G core solutions from Samsung’s Networks Business unit. To further expand the 5G network, Samsung has supplied 5G core solutions and more than 53,000 5G radio base stations to Korea’s three operators.

“Korea is one of the first markets in the world in which the 5G experience is opening up for consumers, and we’re thrilled to play a key role in the nationwide rollout of 5G with our unparalleled 5G network solutions,” said Paul Kyungwhoon Cheun, Executive Vice President and Head of Networks Business at Samsung Electronics. “As a longstanding innovator in the 5G space and one of the few vendors offering a full end-to-end 5G solution, Samsung is at the forefront of pushing the limits of 5G and beyond.”

Korean operators rolled out their commercial 5G networks using Samsung’s 5G Massive-MIMO Unit (MMU) radio base station in the 3.5GHz spectrum. A key characteristic of Samsung MMUs deployed in Korea is that they are among the smallest and lightest in the industry, ensuring they can be easily installed in existing operators’ cellular sites requiring minimal changes. This ability to re-use existing site has been key to enabling the Korean operators to deploy 5G network consisting of tens of thousands of radios within just few months since the Dec 1^st launch.

The virtualized 5G core solutions, provided to all three Korean operators for their 5G commercial launch, support both legacy 4G networks and next generation 5G services in Non-Standalone (NSA) mode. They can also migrate to Standalone (SA) mode through a simple software upgrade in the future. Samsung’s solution implements many of the key technologies of 5G networks, such as Control and User Plane Separation (CUPS), which are essential for network operators to scale their networks and support the new services enabled by 5G technology.

“Korea has long been regarded a leader when it comes to mobile technology and service adoption, and it is a market that other operators and vendors follow closely, said Daryl Schoolar, Practice Leader for Service Provider Technologies at Ovum. Samsung’s significant role in helping all three Korean mobile operators roll out their commercial 5G networks gives the vendor significant credibility as it looks to expand its 5G network solutions into other markets around the globe.”

5G Massive MIMO Unit (3.5GHz)