Deutsche Telekom (DT) teamed with Huawei to launch what the companies are claiming is the first 5G test network using pre-standardized 5G New Radio (NR) gear.

The network is using the 5G non-standalone NR specification, which is part of 3GPP Release 15. The 3GPP is planning to finalize the 5G non-standard NR specification in December. The standards group announced in March that it was accelerating the 5G non-standalone NR specification to have it ready in December instead of March 2018, which was the previous deadline.

The reason for the fast-tracking of the standard is so that vendors can go ahead and start designing silicon and meet deployment schedules for operators that had aggressive 5G timelines. DT, AT&T, Sprint, Vodafone, Korea Telecom, and many other operators were in favor of the 3GPP’s acceleration of the timeline.

DT deployed the network in 3.7 GHz spectrum band. The operator says the network is getting 2 Gb/s speeds with less than 3 milliseconds of latency.

AT&T, which is also in the midst of several friendly user 5G trials, has said that its 5G test network is achieving speeds of up to 1 Gb/s and latency under 10 milliseconds. However, AT&T's 5G trials are taking place in the 28 GHz and 39 GHz millimeter wave spectrum bands.

The launch of DT’s 5G test network in central Berlin coincides with the IFA 2017 convention, which is the largest consumer electronics event in Europe and is held every year in Berlin.