Not to be outdone by Nokia, MediaTek and BT, Huawei has also shared its latest RedCap progress.

Our field tests with BT Group show that Nokia 5G standalone networks are ready to support RedCap devices,” said Phil Siveter, CEO of Nokia UK and Ireland. “The introduction of RedCap will unlock new 5G opportunities for many industries, with potentially billions of new devices connected with 5G. Transforma Insights meanwhile predicts that IoT connections based on 5G non-massive machine-type communications (non-mMTC) technology – which presumably includes RedCap – will number 490 million in 2030, rising to 810 million by 2032. RedCap, together with technologies like eSIM, promises to enable a lot of these device types to connect to cellular for the first time.Īccording to research firm Counterpoint, 5G RedCap is expected to account for 18% of global cellular IoT module shipments by 2030. Until now, these devices have tended to rely on local networking – like BlueTooth or wifi – in order to keep costs down and ensure decent battery life. Ergo the technology has a lot to offer in terms of potential IoT use cases, like wearables, industrial networking, medical devices, and video surveillance, among others. More importantly though, RedCap modems are simpler and therefore cheaper to produce, and are less power hungry. It also supports advanced 5G features like slicing, edge networking, and ultra reliable, low latency communication (URLLC), for example. Introduced in 3GPP Release 17 (Rel-17), RedCap is essentially a pared back version of 5G New Radio (NR) for devices that don’t particularly need blazing-fast throughput and ultra-low latency, but still need something faster and more responsive than LTE-M, NB-IoT, or even 4G. This is especially the case as we move towards the arrival of 5G SA, bringing with it enhanced reliability, responsiveness, security, and speed which – through 5G RedCap – promises to benefit a host of new IoT devices and use cases,” said Greg McCall, BT’s chief networks officer, in a statement. “This trial with Nokia demonstrates the potential of RedCap technology in unlocking a new wave of innovation within the 5G services ecosystem. BT said the trial will inform its thinking when it comes to designing and launching RedCap services for EE’s consumer and business customers. More specifically, it used mobile division EE’s 5G Standalone (SA) network, Nokia’s AirScale RAN solutions, and MediaTek’s RedCap testing platform.

The telco, in partnership with Nokia and MediaTek, has carried out some trials of the new technology at its Adastral Park research centre. UK operator group BT is trying out 5G Reduced Capability (RedCap) in an effort to unlock new IoT use cases.

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