New Delhi, Oct 15 (IANS): Swedish telecom gear maker Ericsson joined hands with chipmaker Qualcomm Technologies on Tuesday to demonstrate the first 5G video call in the country on millimetreWave (mmWave) at the India Mobile Congress here.

The demonstration was done using a smartphone based on the Snapdragon 855 mobile platform with Snapdragon X50 5G modem-RF system and Ericsson's 5G platform.

"Today marks an important step in India's journey towards 5G. This 5G video call and our longstanding collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies is a testament of how the real benefits of 5G can be achieved through partnerships and collaborations," said Nunzio Mirtillo, Head of Ericsson South East Asia, Oceania and India.

MillimetreWave (mmWave) 5G networks are commercial in North America and are being rolled out in many advanced countries including Japan and Korea, where 28 GHz and 39 GHz spectrum bands are being considered for 5G deployment.

For the 5G video call at IMC, 28 GHz spectrum was used.

As part of the demonstration, Mirtillo made a video call at the Ericsson booth to Rajen Vagadia, Vice President, Qualcomm India Private Limited on site at IMC 2019.

"Ericsson was the first telecom vendor to demonstrate 5G technology in India in 2017. Over the past few years we have been working with several stakeholders to build the 5G ecosystem in the country," Mirtillo said.

"5G will form the backbone of emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and machine to machine communications and will provide India with ‘smart infrastructure' that will open up new opportunities for the country," he added.