Telia Company, together with Nokia and Mediatek, have conducted field tests in Finland with 5G Reduced Capability technology, or RedCap. Telia’s leading and award-winning IoT solutions are enabling businesses across the world to increase their reach, become more efficient and increase sustainability. Now, RedCap is tested as one of the potential next steps to expand the IoT ecosystem.

The faster speeds, lower latency, higher energy efficiency, and increased capacity of 5G are improving the ability of consumers to stream video, play games, or dive into new experiences in virtual reality, while also enabling new industrial use cases such as automated transport systems, service robots, and more accurate global positioning. As of June 2023, Telia had achieved an overall 5G population coverage of 84 percent. While Telia’s 5G rollout continues, Telia stays at the forefront when it comes to evaluating new technology and new capabilities.

This is where RedCap comes in. The driving force behind 5G is its radio access technology New Radio (NR), which enables continuous enhancements, in turn introducing new use cases which in the end means that the 5G ecosystem expands.  Now, Reduced Capability NR – or RedCap – can bring 5G to devices that do not leverage the full 5G capabilities. These include devices such as smartwatches and other wearables, health trackers and smart home systems, that come with lower demands on battery life and with lower bandwidth requirements.

“Today, Telia offers cellular Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) networks, that are designed for IoT with better coverage, longer battery life and lower costs. IoT Connectivity will continue to be developed within 5G too, and these new networks will enable solutions and innovations that were not previously possible. We are now connecting a massive number of IoT devices in in our networks, enabling our customers to increase efficiency and reach sustainability goals. Now, we have also successfully tested 5G RedCap which will eventually complement our present IoT ecosystem and our services to customers.”

Staffan Eriksson, Senior Portfolio Manager for IoT Connectivity at Telia

Telia, Nokia, and Mediatek conducted the field tests together. The test setup included the radio access network (RAN), and RedCap was deployed in a base station within Telia Finland’s production network, the packet core for which the base station was connected to Telia’s 5G SA packet core. The test device was provided by Nokia, from Mediatek. The test was done as a mobility test to ensure all handovers were working.

“The successful field tests confirm that Nokia 5G networks in Standalone mode are ready for RedCap. Simplified RedCap devices extend the application of 5G SA towards use cases with reduced bandwidth requirements. Nokia is playing a significant role in driving industry standards and adoption for this technology, ensuring that RedCap will be able to serve enterprise and industrial IoT use cases as well as enable a wider ecosystem of consumer devices, including wearables.”

Ari Kynäslahti, Head of Strategy and Technology at Nokia Mobile Networks.

“This collaboration with Telia and Nokia has been instrumental to achieve a significant milestone for the 5G IoT market deployment. RedCap represents an important technology leap, making 5G IoT devices like wearables and industrial wireless sensors not only more efficient and affordable but also harnessing all connectivity benefits that 5G has to offer.”

Pascal Lemasson, Associate VP Sales Europe at MediaTek

In recent years, Telia has seen a continuous increase in the number of cellular-connected IoT devices on its networks across the Nordic and Baltic countries. For example, 2021 saw an increase of 44 percent, more than double the growth compared to 2020.

Read more about Telia IoT Connectivity