Telefónica and CMM promote the first direct television with 5G over the 700 MHz band

Middle Castile-La Mancha (CMM) y Telefónica They have carried out live television with 5G on the 700 MHz band for the first time in Spain.

For this use case, the first carried out by an operator in the 700MHz band after the auction that was resolved last Wednesday, July 21, the same two tri-sector 5G radio nodes have been used on said frequency deployed by Telefónica. This installation occurred within the framework of tests promoted by the SETID to analyze the coexistence of 5G with DTT after the second digital dividend, in which this band has been freed to retune DTT channels to frequencies below 700 MHz. In this way, Alcázar de San Juan becomes the first town in Spain with 5G coverage at 700 MHz from Telefónica.

The connection, broadcast on the morning news on regional television, was made through a backpack with H.265 video encoding. Mobile Viewpoint, equipped with 700 MHz 5G modems. Connections using this generation of mobile telephony allow high quality and minimal delay. In broadcast applications, users will be able to appreciate greater naturalness of live interviews with an immediate response from the interviewee, as well as greater signal stability even with camera movements.

The initiative has had the collaboration of Ericsson as a supplier of the 5G radio infrastructure in the Telefónica network, while the Mobile Viewpoint 5G dongle has been provided by its distributor in Spain, Ges-IT.

Personalities in the 5G connection

In the broadcast promoted by Telefónica and CMM, they have intervened Mercedes Fernández, Innovation Manager Telefónica Spain; Rosa Melchor, mayor of Alcázar de San Juan; Alipio García Rodríguez, general director of Territorial Cohesion of the Government of Castilla-La Mancha, and Arturo Azcorra, general director of Telecommunications and Organization of Audiovisual Communication Services of the Secretariat of State for Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructure of Spain (SETELECO).

Fernández has highlighted that "the use case that we have carried out today is an important milestone in the practical application of all the possibilities of the recently auctioned 700MHz frequency that allows extensive coverage and greater indoor penetration to be deployed, so it will be essential for rural connectivity and small municipalities, and to enable future IoT services over 5G." For its part, Azcorra has thanked Alcázar de San Juan and also the municipality of La Solana for their participation in the compatibility test between 5G and DTT in the 700 MHz band, which has been carried out during the last month without significant incidents. He also assured: "we are promoting 5G technology due to the impact it will have on the economy and job creation. The Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan will allocate 1.5 billion euros until 2023 to the development of this technology."

700 MHz auction

In the spectrum auction, Telefónica was awarded 1 2×10 MHz block for a total amount of 310.09 million euros on July 21. The block is associated with commitments to provide 5G coverage before June 2025 to all municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants, airports, ports and AVE stations, as well as motorways, highways and multilane roads throughout Spain.

The coverage obligations of the assigned spectrum, the operator points out, are aligned with Telefónica's commitment to maximize the extension of the ultra-connectivity networks.