M1 to trial Nokia’s first 5G small cell in Southeast Asia
· Leveraging M1’s expertise in deploying the largest 4.5G HetNet in Singapore, to trial Nokia’s first 5G small cell in Southeast Asia by 4Q-2018
· M1’s leadership in NB-IoT technology will spur development of new innovative IoT solutions which harness 5G capabilities
· M1’s 4.5G HetNet forms the foundation for next generation 5G small cells architecture

SINGAPORE, 22 June 2018 – M1 Limited (M1) and Nokia today announced plans to conduct Nokia’s first 5G small cell trial in Southeast Asia. The two companies will also showcase demand-driven 5G use cases in selected vertical industries which require dedicated small cell capacity and very low latency IoT connectivity.

Leveraging on M1’s engineering experience in deploying an extensive 4.5G Heterogeneous Network (HetNet) at traffic hotspots throughout Singapore, this 5G small cell trial marks another important milestone in M1 and Nokia’s joint efforts in staying at the forefront of the latest technology developments. The findings from this live trial will provide valuable practical learnings for the commercial deployment of 5G small cells in a dense cell grid architecture and operating at very high 5G frequency bands.

In 2017, M1 together with Nokia, deployed Southeast Asia’s first nationwide commercial Narrowband-Internet of Things (NB-IoT) network, to catalyse smart solutions innovation, supporting Singapore’s transformation into a Smart Nation. Today, M1 and its partners have available solutions such as smart energy management for buildings, environmental monitoring, asset tracking and fleet management which are well supported by the NB-IoT network. In the coming years, many more IoT and smart solutions will be developed, such as autonomous drone control, which demand greater reliability and much lower network latency. As 5G specifications support not only Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) but also deliver Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC) and support massive Machine Type Communication (mMTC), M1 and Nokia plan to evaluate and showcase new IoT use cases that require a highly responsive 5G small cell network as soon as the latest 3GPP standards are finalised over the next two years.

“With M1’s NB-IoT network and largest HetNet deployment nationwide today, we are well positioned to harness exciting new 5G capabilities and support extremely reliable and highly responsive advanced network infrastructure on our dense cell grid architecture. The practical learning from early 5G field trial is critical for the success of developing high performance and demand-driven 5G services for our customers in future and enables us to play a key role in Singapore’s Smart Nation initiatives,” said Mr Denis Seek, Chief Technical Officer, M1.

“We are thrilled to continue to partner with M1 to conduct a 5G trial, including Nokia’s Southeast Asia’s first 5G small cell trial in 4Q-2018. This is a great opportunity for us to leverage the learnings from the trial to develop the next generation 5G small cells architecture and shape the future products and technology, which will benefit the entire industry. We are committed to working with M1 to develop future technologies in keeping with their requirements and this initiative enables us to do the same,” said Mark Atkinson, Head of Small Cell, Nokia.

By Harry