Telecoms.com – Charting the route to 5G success
In this article Bengt Nordstrom, CEO of telecoms consultancy Northstream, assesses some of the key things telcos need to be aware of if they want to make the most of the 5G era.
5G promises exponentially faster speeds, higher capacity, lower latency and more throughput than today’s networks. It will use existing LTE standards and technology as its foundation, but will incorporate a new air interface at a higher frequency band (greater than 6GHz) to deliver throughput speeds of up to 10Gbps, plus cell edge throughput of 10-100Mbps, and sub-one millisecond latency. 5G will also support billions more devices and connections per cell than current networks.
But what will this really mean? What impact will 5G make and what issues will be different from previous technology shifts?
Operators and OEMs worldwide are in a race to be the first to launch 5G commercially by 2020, and big hopes are tied to 5G to deliver growth and new usage areas. But for this to happen, operators and vendors must bear in mind several critical considerations and differences from previous introductions of new technologies.
