Are Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile And Sprint Building 5G Networks? – Carrier Wrap Episode 29

With deployment of true “4G” networks still in their infancy, the mobile telecom space has turned its full attention to plans for the next network technology evolution under the guise of the “5G” term. While we are still years away from solidifying exactly what will entail 5G technology, wireless carriers and vendors are working overtime throwing around their ideas of just what 5G will be.

On this week’s Carrier Wrap, we speak with Michael Thelander, president and founder of Signals Research Group, who has been closely following the hype surrounding 5G, which he admits has taken on a life of its own. Thelander said this hype has seen the term misused and abused by companies looking to garner a marketing edge, and in fact has caused Thelander to instead refer to the move under the term “new radio.”

Thelandar noted that the industry in general is still wrestling with potential use case scenarios for 5G as well as what performance requirements will be needed to meet those use cases. Once those two hurdles are overcome, Thelander said standards bodies will then look to testing models to see how the potential technology will work in a real-world environment, and to this point not a lot of work has been done on these test models.

Once those issues are overcome, Thelander notes the Third-Generation Partnership Program will then look to evaluate the various proposals being offered in terms of 5G standards. SRG provides more insight into the current pace of 5G development work in its “Lessons learned from the three little pigs” report.

Make sure to check us out again next week when we are scheduled to speak with Dan Hays from PwC about IoT opportunity and U.S. government policy.

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