Bouygues Telecom has inaugurated its 5G pilot in the Bordeaux metropolitan area by completing a public demonstration and a live test achieving a download speed of 2.3 Gbps, with an upstream bandwidth of 260 Mbps and a latency of 7.5 milliseconds. The operator has also announced the launch of SmartX_5G, an accelerator programme focusing on several areas of strength within the Bouygues group (smart cities, connected buildings, mobility and entertainment).
Bouygues Telecom carried out the test over 3.5 GHz spectrum using two of its cell sites located approximately ten kilometres from each other (in Merignac and the centre of Bordeaux). Its presentation on 03 July showcased remote-controlled driving, an e-health application created by French start-up Exelus ('Nomadeec'), and an application developed by the operator for remote assistance of its own network (‘5G Remote Expert’). A fourth demonstration consisted of a video streaming test showing on ten screens the simultaneous feeds from ten connected 4K cameras.
Bouygues Telecom said that the equipment provided for the pilot by Huawei will be similar to what it plans to deploy across its future 5G network, which will evolve from its existing infrastructure based on the 3GPP R15 NSA standard.
