Speeding up the 5G – Empower installed 5G base stations on the Aalto University campus

Photo: Mikko Raskinen / Aalto University

In September, Empower installed two 5G base stations for research use on the Aalto University campus in Otaniemi, Espoo. The installations are part of a national 5G-FORCE project focusing on research and development of the 5G ecosystem.

5G-FORCE is a project led by a multidisciplinary research team developing a research platform for 5G network and services in Finland. Coordinated by Aalto University, the project brings together expertise in areas such as radio, networking, computer science, IT, cloud technologies and new IoT services. Launched in January 2019, 5G-FORCE is a continuation of the TAKE-5 project which enabled deployment of the network on the Otaniemi campus.

"The idea behind 5G-FORCE is to provide an open infrastructure for all 5G experiments and research," says Jose Costa-Requena, PhD, a responsible for the project at Aalto University. “To enable this, Empower helped us install 5G radios on campus base stations. The next step is to configure the devices and if all goes well, we will be soon fully operational. 5G-FORCE is connected to a test network and we also have the necessary radio license to utilize the base stations. This means that we will be able to provide the platform for researchers and companies for various 5G projects, such as research for autonomous cars.”

In recent years, Empower has completed several installs of 5G test base stations for operators and equipment manufacturers throughout Finland and the pace seems to be accelerating in Connectivity business towards the end of the year. The number of installs is also expected to increase next year, as consumers will be able to benefit even more from 5G.