3GPP Agrees Timetable for the First Official 5G Mobile Specifications

The next generation of ultra-fast (20Gbps capable) 5G based Mobile Broadband technology has edged a little closer this week after the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) agreed on a workplan to produce the first official release of 5G specifications (aka – Release-15) by June 2018.

3GPP’s move is important because they unite seven of the major organisations responsible for setting new telecommunications standards (e.g. ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC), albeit with a specific focus on cellular network technologies and radio access etc.

As such 3GPP has the responsibility of defining many of the standards that will go towards creating the new future technology. After that their candidate solution will have to be submitted to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU-R) as part of forming the final standard for “5G New Radio” technology, which is defined under IMT-2020.

The plan itself includes a set of intermediate tasks and check-points (see graphic below) to “guide the ongoing studies in the Working Groups“. Further details can be found here and it’s confirmed that there will be a focus on harnessing “frequency ranges below 6GHz and above 6GHz” (quite a wide range, but nothing specific is nailed down yet).