The Dawn of 5G: The Journey Begins

2015 was the year when 5G moved into the limelight. Although we are still five years away from the first expected commercial standards-compliant networks, R&D activity is ramping up and politicians (at least in Europe and Asia, with the Americas apparently reluctant to make a public move from LTE to 5G) rushing to help in order to reap the economic benefits in the future.

TelecomTV got an early glimpse of the potential of 5G, when we visited the UK’s leading 5G research institution at the University of Surry. Our two videos provide an excellent primer on 5G and the work being undertaken in the UK. When then followed this with our exclusive video coverage of the NGMN’s industry event in Frankfurt, where we interviewed 20 leading advocates of 5G, from operators and vendors to industry groups and standards organisations. I really recommend you watch as many of these as you can to get a true sense of industry thinking towards 5G.

Since then, we have reported on numerous alliances, MoUs and technical trials as we move towards realising the 5G vision. Although, as we said, true 5G is still five years away, there is an emerging trend towards releasing “pre-5G” technologies, to ease the transition towards the radically new 5G architectures of the next decade (as well as generate revenue to offset R&D and perhaps influence the standards work – key patents are going to be extremely valuable). You can read all of our coverage here.

Expect more 5G coverage from TelecomTV as we move into 2016, when we should start to see the beginning of standards work and get a better idea of the key components of 5G. And our plea to Santa this Christmas? Please, more direct involvement from the important industry verticals in the development phase of 5G. “Build it and they will come” might work for IoT, but it is far from the ideal strategy for 5G. More collaboration please, and not just within the established telecoms sector.

Guy Daniels, Director of Content, TelecomTV

• Inside the Labs: 5G Innovation Centre, a video featuring Prof Rahim Tafazolli, Director of the 5GIC; Keith Robson, COO, 5GIC; Dr Mir Ghoraishi, Testbed and Proof of Concept Project Leader; Dr Tim Brown, Senior Lecturer in RF, Antennas and Propagation;
   
• Why 5G is a Special Generation, a video featuring Prof. Rahim Tafazolli, Director of the 5GIC, University of Surrey;
   
• ETSI wants greater collaboration in the 5G IPR process, a video featuring Dirk Weiler, Board Chairman, ETSI, and Chairman of the ETSI IPR Committee;
   
• NGMN positions operators at the forefront of 5G development, a video featuring Bruno Jacobfeuerborn, CTO, Deutsche Telekom and Chairman, NGMN;
   
• Europe's 5G-PPP to commence research trials this year, a video featuring Werner Mohr, Chairman, 5G Infrastructure Association;
   
• ITU to start its sub-6GHz 5G discussions at WRC15, a video featuring Chaesub Lee, Director, Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, ITU;
   
• Tele2 to create networks on demand with 5G, a video featuring Joachim Horn, EVP Group CTIO, Tele2.