A new global initiative led by AT&T aims to bring together technology leaders and operators to drive forward the next generation of cellular technology, 5G.
The goal of the initiative is to allow faster 5G deployment once the standards body 3GPP has completed its first set of official specifications.
The plan is to work with a broad set of industry participants. Preliminary discussions are underway with worldwide carriers as well as electronics manufacturers, including China Mobile, Deutsche Telekom, Ericsson, Huawei, Intel, KDDI, LG, Nokia, NTT DOCOMO, INC., Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., Samsung, SK Telecom, Telstra and Vodafone.
Many players in the industry hope that the example of 4G standards can be followed with 5G standards. Unlike with 3G, the entire industry united behind a single standardisation track and gave a mandate for 3GPP to succeed.
AT&T is currently undertaking 5G trials that focus on accelerating over-the-air interoperability testing based on standards developed under the 3GPP New Radio specifications.
The trials are designed so that they can evolve as the standards are updated.
“We’re joining other tech leaders to find and resolve key standards issues early and bring 5G to market sooner.” said Tom Keathley, senior vice president- wireless network architecture and design, AT&T.
He said: “Interim and fragmented pre-standard specifications can distract from the ultimate goal. Linking trials to the standards process is the fastest path to large-scale global 5G deployment.”
5G is the next generation of cellular connectivity technology that will follow 4G. It may include connecting the mobile phones that are commonly used today, but also connecting machine-to-machine and internet of things (IoT) devices.
Currently the industry is trying to iron out the specifications for what 5G will look like. 5G is supposed to be a more energy-efficient network, with faster data download and upload speeds with lower latency.
5G may use higher frequency bands to transmit data, where there is relatively little competition over bandwidth. This will mean a lower wave-length.
