Europe’s first superfast 5G network antennas given test run

Deutsche Telekom tested Europe’s first ultrahigh-speed 5G antennas in a real world setting on Thursday, a milestone in the race to provide the fast response times needed for virtual reality and autonomous driving.

Europe’s biggest telecoms provider said it showed it was ready for a global launch of the technology by 2020, but it still leaves the continent lagging behind South Korea and Japan.

Telekom said it was the first use of the technology in a real world setting in Europe with speeds of more than 2 gigabits a second to a customer device, as well as a latency of 3 milliseconds on commercial sites. The 5G networks, which are expected to provide speeds 10 to 100 times faster than 4G networks, should remove one of the main obstacles to virtual and augmented reality, which need fast response times.

It was a “very decisive developmental step” on the way to the global launch of 5G planned for 2020, Telekom said.

The race to provide 5G is being led by South Korea and Japan, which plan to deploy it in the next year or so, followed quickly by the US, where Telekom is the majority owner of number three ranked mobile carrier, T-Mobile.