AT&T teams with industry leaders for 5G
AT&T announced it will be working with a number of technology companies and operators to expedite the deployment of “5G” technology.
The telecom company says preliminary discussions on the project are underway with China Mobile, Deutsche Telekom, Ericsson, Huawei, Intel, KDDI, LG, Nokia, NTT DoCoMo, Qualcomm, Samsung, SK Technologies, Telstra and Vodafone.
“We’re joining other tech leaders to find and resolve key standards issues early and bring 5G to market sooner,” said Tom Keathley, SVP of wireless network architecture and design at AT&T, in a statement. “Interim and fragmented prestandard specifications can distract from the ultimate goal. Linking trials to the standards process is the fastest path to large-scale global 5G deployment.”
The 3GPP standards specifications are expected to make the next-generation technology a “ready system” by 2020. AT&T’s announcement shows the company is working to be ready for that date. The operator claims the goal is to enable faster deployment once 3GPP completes the first release of the official specifications.
In 5G trials, AT&T is accelerating over-the-air interoperability testing based on standards developed under the 3GPP New Radio specifications. The trials are designed to adapt with future versions of the official standards, a milestone 3GPP targets for 2018.
Earlier this year, AT&T worked with the Federal Communications Commission in Austin, Texas, to get an experimental license to conduct 5G technology trials using spectrum in the 3.4-3.6 GHz, 3.7-4.2 GHz, 14.5-15.35 GHz and 27.5-28.5 GHz bands. The carrier said the testing would be used for “experimental equipment” in support of “potential (5G) multigigabyte per second applications for fixed and mobile wireless communication networks at higher transmission rates and lower latency than is currently available,” and supporting voice, video and data.
