Maxis: 5G trials ongoing, but 4G to stay as main network
KUCHING: Maxis Bhd (Maxis) is currently working on 5G trials but believes that 4G is going to stay as the main network over the next couple of years.
According to chief technology officer Morten Bangsgaard, this is because there are still upgrades or enhancements constantly being made to the 4G technology.
“We are starting on 5G now, it’s going to take a while before you can say we as consumers will see it. But, that is of course the next big thing,” he told The Borneo Post, Utusan Borneo and See Hua Daily News in an interview.
“That said, 4G is going to be the main network for many years to come and even 4G technology is not standing still as a whole, so (there are still) enhancements (to be made on) 4G technology.”
On 5G updates from Maxis, Bangsgaard said that they were doing trials for the first 5G equipment this year in their labs and looking at gigabit speeds.
“Next year, hopefully very early next year, we will start to do a bit more real trials, put it out in a real site and put more real customers on it, but it will only be as a trial aspect.”
Bangsgaard also noted that an area that could potentially benefit from the adoption of 5G would would involve cars traffic.
“You can see there’s a lot of investments going into this area. A lot of innovations is trying to go into traffic and safety, smart traffic management in cities and everything from traffic lights and so forth.
“That could be an area, I think, that would benefit early in the process. Over a longer term, it is hard to see, but I think every industry is looking into how we can use these new technologies.”
“Over time, we will hopefully see many interesting cases from the 5G perspective but it’s going to take some time.”