Verizon has applied for a six-month special temporary authorisation to conduct experimental operations using prototype equipment in the 27.5GHz and 28.5GHz range while T-Mobile US has filed permission to conduct tests at four locations using 28GHz and 39GHz bands.
From April 2016, Verizon aims to test equipment from Ericsson, Intel, Qualcomm and Samsung within a kilometre radius of its offices in Euless, Texas and South Plainfield, New Jersey.
The tests will enable the operator to better understand the characteristics of millimetre wave spectrum – particularly in the 28GHz band – channel bandwidths and uplink and downlink ratios for residential and commercial deployments.
In its filing, T-Mobile said: “As part of its efforts to be an industry leader and continue improving and increasing the capacity of its networks, T-Mobile wishes to conduct tests of 5G technology in the millimetre wave bands, which may play an important role in meeting the increasing demand for data-intensive applications.”
If successful, T-Mobile will conduct indoor tests at its Bellevue laboratory, its headquarters and two outdoor locations nearby.
“In each case, T-Mobile will test signal strength, transmission and reception characteristics and other parameters that will be useful as it contemplates how it may incorporate millimetre wave spectrum in its network to support 5G operations,” said the operator.