Espoo, Finland. Nokia, together with BT Group and MediaTek today announced that they have successfully completed trials of 5G Reduced Capability (RedCap) technology with RedCap devices. The trial, which took place at BT Group’s Adastral Park site, utilized Nokia’s AirScale RAN portfolio, EE’s 5G Standalone (SA) network, and MediaTek’s RedCap testing platform. RedCap is a technology introduced in 3GPP Release 17 that brings 5G to devices that do not require its full capabilities. It has the potential to expand the IoT ecosystem and accelerate its deployment within the industry. BT Group is evaluating RedCap to support new 5G use cases which could benefit both EE’s business and consumer customer bases.
5G devices such as smartphones often have complex hardware and power-hungry features which leads to higher cost, size, and power consumption. RedCap technology focuses on simplifying 5G devices, particularly small IoT devices such as wearables or health trackers for consumers as well as ruggedized routers, and environmental or other condition-based monitoring sensors. These devices have less demand for battery life and lower bandwidth requirements. RedCap ensures they maintain performance and optimizes their power efficiency. Nokia has played a pivotal role in advancing RedCap IoT functionality together with the telecommunications industry.
