6 days ago
Chula carries out nation's inaugural 5.5G field test
Chulalongkorn University's Faculty of Engineering has initiated the country's first 5.5G field test, paving the way for a real-time navigation system and automated factories as well as 6G development in the near future.
The university and related parties jointly conducted this experiment within its 5G-A Spectrum Joint Exploration project in its regulatory sandbox, running from late last year through September 2025.
Trairat Viriyasirikul, acting secretary-general of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), said the NBTC office allowed the university to set up the sandbox for testing new innovations and technologies, including allowing use of the upper band of the 6GHz frequency for the testing phase of the project.
Telecom industry operators support the 5.5G network being used in the project.
An NBTC source who requested anonymity said Thailand is expected to officially start using 5.5G technology by the end of 2025 through a partnership between Chinese tech giant Huawei and local service providers such as True Corporation and Advanced Info Service.
The partnership includes the government sector, in line with the Thailand 4.0 policy.
Chulalongkorn University's 5G-A Spectrum Joint Exploration project recently invited related parties to present their test results.
The test demonstrated that 5G-Advanced technology can transmit data downlinks at a speed of up to 10 gigabits per second (Gbps), 10 times faster than 5G technology for outdoor usage, and a speed up to 1Gbps for indoor usage.
5.5G, known as 5G-Advanced in full, is a leap in technology that will upgrade the entire mobile network system to be faster, smarter and save more energy than ever.
It delivers a peak download speed of up to 100Gbps, compared to 5G's 10Gbps. It is ideal for real-time tasks such as augmented reality or virtual reality, gaming and even remote surgery.
Currently, more than 60 network providers around the world, including those in China and Hong Kong, have started offering 5.5G services after 3GPP, the telecommunications standardisation organisation, released the first draft of 5.5G standards this year.
Abel Deng, president of Huawei Asia-Pacific's carrier sales business, said earlier that a combination of generative artificial intelligence and 5.5G would unlock new creative and economic potential in the Asia-Pacific region.
