Nokia (News - Alert) this week offered an update on its 5G FIRST initiative.
In doing so, the company laid out its plans for supporting the 3GPP 5G Phase I protocol in its end-to-end solution. It noted that the industry appears likely to go commercial with standards-based 5G solutions as early as 2019, a year after that new 3GPP air interface standard is set to be final. And talked about trial efforts and the need for more spectrum relating to 5G.
In its work to prepare for 5G, Nokia said it has gained valuable insights related to such things as 5G integration with existing networks, the importance of cloud native core and cloud RAN technologies, massive MIMO and beamforming, small cells, and the use of radio propagation in higher frequencies.
Nokia made headlines recently when the company’s CEO, Rajeev Suri (News - Alert), noted during a quarterly analyst conference call that 5G is moving forward faster than initially expected and said that will create “some near-term risk.”
Suri added that Nokia at this point expects significant 5G trials to take place next year. And, he said, we should see “meaningful deployments” of 5G in China, the U.S., and elsewhere by 2019.
Initially, Nokia thought 5G would not take off until 2020 or 2021, he explained.
He also talked about how 5G is poised to be widespread and lead to investments in other aspects of networking. Given Nokia’s broad portfolio, that could be good news for the company.
Nokia recently has put out 5G press announcements mentioning China Mobile, NTT DOCOMO, and T-Mobile (News - Alert). Nokia partnered with China Mobile at Mobile World Congress this summer in Shanghai to demonstrate how the 5G FIRST solution can be used for emergency patient care. The infrastructure supplier is in the process of developing a 5G ecosystem with NTT (News - Alert) DOCOMO. And Nokia expects to play an integral role in T-Mobile’s 5G launch in the U.S.
Edited by
Alicia Young
