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5G Broadcast Ready for Commercialization

The first 5G Broadcast (also known as LTE-based 5G terrestrial Broadcast) trials based on the FeMBMS standard were carried out several years ago. FeMBMS stands for “further evolved multimedia broadcast multicast service” and is an enhancement of eMBMS, also known as LTE Broadcast, which was introduced by 3GPP Release 14 and permits use of 100% of the available transmission capacity for broadcasting services.

The potential applications range from high-power stations operating in single-frequency mode and serving large areas all the way to low-power test fields within a local venue. Although the testing technology was evolving, no 5G Broadcast-ready commercial mobile devices were available in the market at that time. Early this year, the focus shifted to receiving devices.

At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February 2022, visitors witnessed the first end-to-end commercial 5G Broadcast solution in action.

The SPINNER 5G Broadcast mask filter provided for the demonstration

A live signal was transmitted within the exhibition center in Barcelona, using a Rohde & Schwarz transmitter, sectorized antenna systems from Cellnex and a smartphone form-factor test device from Qualcomm Technologies. SPINNER supplied a mask filter from its portfolio.

The 5G Broadcast solution was based on the 3GPP Release 16 feature set and operated free-to-air (FTA) in receive-only mode (ROM) without the need for a SIM card. The dedicated 5G Broadcast mode was demonstrated in the UHF band with a standalone high-power, high-tower (HPHT) broadcasting setup.

5G Broadcast enables a wide range of applications, also for the automotive industry. But although many of the field trials demonstrate transmission of live content, 5G Broadcast isn’t limited to these applications. Whenever it’s appropriate to send data to multiple recipients at the same time, it’s an efficient way to complement mobile networks.

SPINNER, as an established supplier of mobile communications and broadcasting solutions to network operators, is convinced of the value of this new standard. Therefore, the SPINNER portfolio offers products for 5G Broadcast such as filters and combiners with integrated mask filtering for merging several transmitter signals.

If you would like more information, please write to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call +49 89 12601-0 and we’ll be happy to help you.

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