Turkey's first international standards-compliant live 5G connection test was jointly held by the country's leading GSM operator Turkcell and Ericsson in Istanbul.

According to a statement issued by Turkcell, the company has further accelerated its works on 5G. Through a joint study with Ericsson, Turkcell carried out the first end-to-end 5G connection test through 3.5 GHz band in compliance with international 3GPP standards.

In this live connection, which is a first in Turkey and can be performed by few operators in the world, a test device, provided by Ericsson's radio access solution, cloud core system solutions and ecosystem partners, was used on Turkcell's 5G test network.

Data transmissions were performed using the Intel® 5G Mobile Trial Platform device and Turkcell's 5G compatible SIM card, as there are currently no commercial terminals that support 5G technology.

In these tests conducted in Istanbul, 5G systems were run with Turkcell's 4.5G network and Turkcell 4.5G network's preparations for 5G were successfully tested.

Gediz Sezgin, assistant general manager in charge of networks at Turkcell, stated that while setting up the 4.5G network, they attached importance to 5G preparations at each stage, stressing that they have the fastest 4.5G network in the world now.

"Currently, we are able to offer a number of 5G services in Turkey through the 4.5G network that we have set up. These tests, which we conducted as part of our continued collaboration with Ericsson, are also a major part of our preparations for 5G," he added.