5G Americas report outlines efforts in 5G development

BELLEVUE, Wash. – July 6, 2016: 5G Americas, the industry trade association and voice of 5G and LTE for the Americas, today announced the publication of a white paper, Global Organizations Forge New Frontier of 5G that provides an outline of the numerous industry, academic, private company and government entities that are working to progress requirements for the development of the new frontier in fifth generation (5G) technology and its ecosystem.

"LTE will provide the mobile broadband foundation for 5G for years to come, yet there is no denying that 5G has captured the minds and hearts of the industry as we look out to wireless technology in 2020 and beyond. Over the past few years, there has been tremendous progress being made in the research and development of 5G across the globe,” commented Chris Pearson, President of 5G Americas.

The pace of pre-standardization work has been increasing worldwide and the 5G Americas report outlines some of the key contributors to that progress.

• More than a dozen universities are researching from Surrey to NYC to Tokyo, with government grants and private industry contributing to their research goals.
• Leading vendors in the mobile industry support their own institutes and research efforts globally.
• Dozens of standards bodies and industry fora are forging ahead with requirements, use cases and timelines for the development of 5G standards.

“3GPP has defined its timeline with initial studies in ‘5G’ addressed in Release 14 with stage 1 goals in March 2016 finishing Stage 3 in March 2017. It is an ongoing process that will carry through in Releases 15, with the basis for submission to the ITU with conclusions of Release 16 in March 2020,” stated Brian Daly, co-leader of the working group for the report and Director - Core & Government/Regulatory Standards at AT&T Technology & Operations. “Proper standards development will be essential in the global development of 5G and the input from the numerous organizations will be valuable in the work of 3GPP.”

Recent progress in 5G is highlighted by the upcoming U.S. Federal Communications Commission proposal to release high band spectrum for 5G networks and applications that will be voted upon at the July FCC open meeting. The U. S. would be the first country in the world to move forward providing high band spectrum to the mobile wireless industry.

As the industry naturally progresses towards the future that is ‘5G,’ North America and other parts of the world are vying to become leaders in the research and development of 5G standards, networks and products. The 5G Americas report provides a directory of the dozens of global groups working to progress the new generation for our connected future, with a goal to influence and lead the definition of 5G technologies. For example, the European Union has invested 80 Billion Euros over seven years (2014-2020) to fund research on 5G with 700 million Euros contributed by the EU and the balance co-funded by companies involved in the research. In addition, China, Japan and Korea have stated aspirations and embarked on developmental projects to also establish regional and/or national leadership positions in wireless research, development and manufacturing.

5G Americas has progressed its vision and requirements for 5G through a series of white papers beginning in 2014. The white paper on global initiatives released today, Global Organizations Forge New Frontier of 5G, developed by 5G Americas member companies using publicly available information, covers recent advances and initiatives, such as operator trials, as of first quarter 2016. No private or confidential information is included in this paper, which is solely focused on the technological evolution of wireless networks.