3GPP, the standardization body for new mobile technologies and standards has confirmed the fifth generation mobile technology a.k.a 5G specifications. The 5G standard will now succeed the 4G mobile technology but with several key features like mmWave, massive MIMO, massive IoT and more. The new 5G technology standard will be now available to the telecom network & user device manufacturers, to design, produce and make it available in the market.

Although the key players for the new technology have been doing 5G trials for testing and revising the standards, now any manufacturers can start making those network and user equipment using those standard. Lot of works like revision of the specifications are still pending which will happen with more hit and trials. 5G New radio (NR) standard will be the next generation radio technology, with huge advancements for ultra low latency and ultra high speed requirements.

“Today the 3GPP TSG RAN Plenary Meeting in Lisbon successfully completed the first implementable 5G NR specification. AT&T, BT, China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, Ericsson, Fujitsu, Huawei, Intel, KT Corporation, LG Electronics, LG Uplus, MediaTek Inc., NEC Corporation, Nokia, NTT DOCOMO, Orange, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., Samsung Electronics, SK Telecom, Sony Mobile Communications Inc., Sprint, TIM, Telefonica, Telia Company, T-Mobile USA, Verizon, Vodafone, and ZTE have made a statement that the completion of the first 5G NR standard has set the stage for the global mobile industry to start full-scale development of 5G NR for large-scale trials and commercial deployments as early as in 2019”, says 3GPP.

Though it is said to expect commercial deployments in 2019, Korea telecom (KT), one of the partner of 5G standardization is known to showcase 5G in upcoming 2018 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Pyeongchang. China and US are the other two big countries which will launch 5G network promptly. Also some of the carriers in US already claim their network to be of 5G. But it is far from reality as the first 5G specs are just available now. They can claim it as Pre-5G technology now.

We can predict now who will be the first to manufacture 5G base stations and 5G enabled UE (user equipment) / smartphones. It is for sure among these key players like Nokia, Ericsson, Huawei, ZTE, Samsung.

This first 5G spec milestone is known to expedite the development of 5G enabled network or migration from 4G to 5G in a real environment.The 5G standard by 3GPP has to be ratified by ITU for meeting the already set IMT2020 requirements.

What is 5G standard?

To put it simply, 5G is the fifth generation of the mobile communication standards. Just like 2G to 3G and 3G to 4G, the data speed will increase to ultra high level in Gbps. But it is not only the speed that will be enhanced with 5G, but a revolution for ultra low latency, huge number of subscribers (IoT devices) per Node. 5G will have the capability to connect all of the smart things to internet or central location. Due to the higher bandwidth requirement of 5G, the spectrum band for 5G will range from 700 MHz to 50 GHz, making the above 6 GHz frequency ideal for small cells deployment.

Enough of technicalities, so what the customers get with 5G!!! It is ultra-high speed data (100 Mbps in city areas) for not only each mobiles but also for massive IoT. So, all smart devices will be always online ( or connected) though cellular tower. Also the dream of autonomous driving (or Self driving cars) will come to reality with 5G. 5G will also change the way people communicate through Augmented reality / Virtual reality (AR / VR).

Some of other features of 5G are: