5G preparations go into top gear

The finalization of 5G standards is not only the firing of the starting pistol for the final sprint in the commercialization of 5G on a global scale but also heralds a new era in China, as industry experts pointed out that preparatory work for rolling out 5G services will move into top gear with a whole gamut of related work set to start soon.

The comments came right after the 3rd Generation Partnership Project, or 3GPP, a global organization supervising cellular standards, agreed at a recent meeting in Spain on the specifications for the standalone 5G network.

Experts at a recent conference of China's three engineering laboratories in the field, who are also major contributors to 5G promotion, said that this move points to the technical completion of 5G standards.

In China, related work on the industrialization of 5G, including tests, research and development as well as trials, will kick off to provide support for the large-scale commercialization of 5G in the nation by 2020.

5G, which is 10 times faster than 4G, will act as an important platform for new technologies. It will allow for superfast downloading of movies, self-driving cars and streaming virtual reality games to become a reality.

Wang Zhiqin, vice-president of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, a government think tank, said: "In China, the 5G industry has always emphasized both standalone and non-standalone networks. At the very beginning, an array of domestic operators were even inclined to develop standalone networks. That's one of the reasons why the completion of 5G standalone standard is of profound significance to our nation."

The government, telecom operators and equipment makers are all taking the necessary steps in readiness for the commercial deployment of this cutting-edge technology.

Zhang Tongxu, director of the research institute of China Mobile, the nation's major telecom carrier, said: "The standard is a basic framework, which laid a foundation for the further development of the 5G industry chain. It also helped the nation's telecom operators to accelerate steps on building related networks."

China has gained an edge in the 5G race. According to a recent report by Ernst & Young, the nation is poised to win the 5G race and is expected to have 576 million 5G connections by 2025, or more than 40 percent of the global total.

Another report by CAICT pointed out that 5G technology will also drive an economic output of 6.3 trillion yuan ($930 billion) and create more than 8 million jobs in China by 2030.