Qualcomm, Ericsson, and Casa Systems today announced the completion of an extended-range 5G New Radio (NR) data call over millimeter-wave (mmWave).

The vendors say the call, which took place in June in Regional Victoria, Australia, achieved a farthest-ever connection of 3.8 kilometers and demonstrated how operators could use mmWave technology for fixed wireless access and offer fixed wireless as a last-mile broadband option. This will allow network operators to use their existing mobile network infrastructure to provide fixed wireless and expand their services to new areas while delivering 5G’s multi-gigabit speeds and low latency to more customers in their coverage footprint.

The partners say this will also make it easier for operators to roll out fixed-wireless-access CPE devices to areas that are usually difficult to reach with traditional broadband including rural and suburban areas.

Qualcomm, Ericsson, and Casa Systems completed the data call using extended-range software running on commercial Ericsson hardware – including Air5121 and Baseband 6630 – and a Casa Systems 5G CPE device powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon X55 5G Modem-RF System with the Qualcomm QTM527 mmWave antenna module.

Today’s announcement comes just days after Qualcomm and Ericsson announced that they completed interoperability tests for 5G standalone (SA) carrier aggregation. Carrier aggregation allows operators to use multiple sub-6 GHz spectrum channels simultaneously to transfer data between base stations and a 5G mobile device.

The partner vendors completed the test at Ericsson’s labs in Beijing, China. The connection reached 2.5 Gb/s peak speeds by aggregating 100 MHz and 60 MHz within the 2.5 GHz (n41) TDD band in a 70% downlink configuration and using 4x4 multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology.