Swisscom has connected a smartphone prototype featuring a Qualcomm 5G midband modem to a live 5G network.

Swisscom has also connected a hotspot from Taiwan company Wistron NeWeb Corporation featuring the identical modem to the live 5G network.

Lucerne, Zurich, Bern, Lausanne, Geneva and Burgdorf are Swisscom’s 5G test locations.

“We are taking the next step by presenting a 5G smartphone prototype for the first time in real conditions on our 5G network,” Urs Schaeppi, CEO of Swisscom, said.

Swisscom plans to gradually roll out 5G to 60 cities and communities across Switzerland by the end of 2019.

“Ericsson and Swisscom are starting the 5G network rollout in Switzerland and preparing industries for 5G use cases that will benefit the whole economy,” Arun Bansal, president of Ericsson Europe and Latin America, said.

Swisscom connected the two devices to its live 5G network in Lucerne outside a laboratory environment.

“This is the first 5G NR OTA connection worldwide between devices and a live operator network using 3.5 GHz spectrum,” Cristiano Amon, president Qualcomm, said.