VEON has announced that its joint venture company in Kazakhstan, KaR-Tel LLC, operating under the Beeline brand, has launched a large-scale 5G network trial in Shymkent, Kazakhstan.
The end-to-end trial is integrated into Beeline’s live mobile network, making it, says VEON, an Amsterdam-headquartered global provider of connectivity and internet services, one of the largest 5G trials to date in Central Asia.
The network architecture is aligned with the latest 5G release (NSA 3X) and allows 5G devices to aggregate LTE and 5G radio channels to achieve higher download speeds. Initial speed tests, using the 3.7 GHz band, show a downlink speed of 1.0GB per second.
The trial’s 5G coverage spreads over thirteen square kilometres, allowing a number of fixed wireless and mobile use cases to be tested in real-life conditions, including robotics for industry applications and virtual reality experiences such as gaming and 360-degree TV streaming. The trial is being led by KaR-Tel LLC in partnership with Nokia.
During 2019, KaR-Tel LLC has invested in network modernization and the expansion of coverage in order to have 5G-ready infrastructure in Kazakhstan.
