DALLAS – “5G” connectivity is in the works, but what exactly the service will include and when it will be ready for commercial deployment is very much up in the air, according to panelists at the LTE North America conference in Dallas.
What is clear is that major industry players have already started the research and development that will ground an eventual rollout; and although there’s no firm target date, 2020 is poised to be a big year in the telecommunications world.
Chris Pearson, president of industry association 4G Americas, said that right now 5G “is not defined. It is basically now a marketing term for starting discussions. When we look at 5G right now, I think people are using that term to start to think about what we need to do in our networks for a better customer experience. I don’t think we’re going to see any widespread deployment of 5G networks for some time.”
Pearson recently spoke with RCR Wireless News on the 5G topic.
Offering up an operator perspective, Yasmin Karimli, director of radio technology development for T-Mobile US, emphasized the likely need to tap into higher bandwidths.
Karimli said the bands T-Mobile US operates in now are “pretty much taken up today. If we are to develop a new technology, it would have to be in higher bandwidths. We see technologies kind of migrating toward that.”
Karimli said that network planning is a key part of the movement to 5G.
Chih-Lin I, chief Scientist for wireless technologies at the China Mobile Research Institute, said her company began considering 5G in 2011, but stressed that for China Mobile, 2G, 3G and 4G are still very important.
“I think 4G is still at its beginning. Lots of people are questioning, ‘Is it smart for so many of us starting to look at 5G?’ I believe it depends on how you are looking at 5G.”
She described a network that would combine new spectrum, the continuing evolution of 4G and Wi-Fi infrastructure.
“All together, that’s 5G. I don’t think it’s too early to get started.”
Eduardo Esteves, VP of product management for Qualcomm, said the time is right to begin discussions of how 5G will be developed and deployed.
“It’s a network of networks,” he said. “That means that in the beginning, the design is going to take into account that there are other networks. Then try to make the best use as part of 5G.”
Panel moderator Ian Gillott, president of iGR, asked the four panelists to sum up in just one word what aspect of 5G keeps them up at night.
For Pearson, it’s potential “disruption.” Karimli picked out “capacity,” while Esteves chose “complexity.” I from China Mobile came up with two words: “efficiency and agility.”
For more from LTE North America, click here to visit the RCR Wireless News YouTube channel.
