Vodafone and Ericsson joined forces in Portugal and Spain in what was a fairly novel way to display the capabilities of the Sweden-based vendor’s virtualized 5G core network technology and how it can support mobile roaming between 5G networks in two different countries.

The demo involved the use of two vehicles that travelled across the Minho River between Tui in Vigo, Spain and Valença do Minho in Porto, Portugal. Two Esport gamers from the Vodafone Giants team, known only as Fox and Tojor, played together in real time as they crossed the border, using the respective 5G networks of the two Vodafone operators.

Ericsson said it provided virtualized 5G core network functions for both Vodafone Spain and Vodafone Portugal networks along with 5G Radio gnodeBs, adding that the technology “allowed for roaming call mobility from one country to the other.”

The vendor noted that both networks are connected through the Vodafone roaming services network and said two radio locations were deployed in both Tui and Valença do Minho with 5G Massive MIMO AIR 6488 technology.

Ericsson also pointed out that gaming is one of the areas that is expected to benefit significantly from the ultra-low latency and high-speed capabilities that 5G networks are expected to support. “This means that gamers can play without disconnection or ‘lags’ of the game in which they could be eliminated or lose important records,” Ericsson said.

Meanwhile José Antonio López, Head of Ericsson Spain and Portugal, hailed the demo as marking the first time that two countries have been connected via roaming on 5G mobile networks.

Vodafone and Ericsson and also both work with VMware on network virtualization for carriers, as highlighted by announcements at this year’s Mobile World Congress. Ericsson and VMware formed a new alliance to simplify developments in this area and Vodafone expanded its VMware cloud infrastructure footprint as it prepares to deploy 5G networks.

At the time, Matt Beal, Head of Technology, Strategy and Architecture, Vodafone Group, said the group had implemented Ericsson’s EPC, PCRF, UDC, IMS and MSC virtual network functions on VMware vCloudNFV. “The combination of software from both companies, accelerates time to market for new services and enables our customers to fully embrace the opportunities of services like VoLTE and 4G/5G,” Beal said.