Orange, Bouygues Trumpet Latest 5G Trials

Orange and Bouygues ramped up their respective 5G test programmes this week, announcing new trials in new locations.

Following tests in Lille and Douai, incumbent Orange said on Tuesday it will commence 5G tests in Marseille, after receiving approval from French telco regulator Arcep to use the 3.7-3.8 GHz band for its experiments.

Meanwhile, in a separate announcement, Bouygues Telecom claimed to have conducted France’s first 5G pilot under real-world conditions. In partnership with hardware supplier Huawei, the operator conducted various tests in Bordeaux between two antennas, 10 kilometres apart. The tests saw a peak downlink speed of 2.3 Gbps, and latency as low as 7.5 milliseconds.

The test was based on non-standalone (NSA) 5G technology.

Bouygues said it aims to increase the number of antennas involved in the pilot to several dozen in Bordeaux over the coming weeks.

Bouygues Telecom this week also launched SmartX_5G Accelerator, a startup accelerator programme that will bring together different elements of the ecosystem in a bid to develop new 5G use cases specifically related to the wider Bouygues Group’s business activities, namely mobility, construction, and entertainment. – Total Telecom