Deutsche Telekom Demonstrates First 5G Antennas in Berlin

Deutsche Telekom debuted its first ultra high-speed next generation mobile antennas on Thursday, which Europe's biggest telecoms provider said showed it was ready for a global launch of the technology by 2020.

Telekom said it was the first use of the technology in a real world setting in Europe, with speeds of more than 2 gigabits per second to a customer device, as well as a latency of 3 milliseconds on commercial sites.

The antennas are manufactured by China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd.

"This is a very decisive developmental step on the way to the global launch of 5G, which is planned for 2020," Telekom board member Claudia Nemat said in a statement.

When Telekom starts commercial rollouts of 5G networks in 2020, it is expected to be in slices of new bandwidth to enable specialised services for connected cars, pre-booking parking spots and even smart trash cans.

Europe is expected to take a slower approach to 5G network deployments than operators in South Korea and Japan, where rollout is due next year, followed quickly by the United States where Telekom is the majority owner of No. 3 ranked mobile carrier T-Mobile.

© Thomson Reuters 2017