After working with Verizon’s 5G Technology Forum, which is a group of global operators, parameters have been defined for 5G specifications in advance of future standards. To break that down in simple terms, Verizon has now outlined guidelines to test and validate crucial 5G technical aspects. This leads to compliant chipset manufacturing and a slew of other important developments.
To give you a sense of what Verizon is shooting for with 5G, end users will enjoy a wireless network that delivers several gigabits per second throughputs and single-millisecond latencies. Think of it like Google Fiber, but for your smartphone.
Verizon has published the specification document for all to see, if you’re interested.
According to Adam Koeppe, Vice President Network Technology Planning (lead of the 5G trials), “The level of collaboration that we are seeing exceeds what we saw during 4G. This agile way of developing the specification and working with the ecosystem will enable us to get to market rapidly.”
While all of this is groovy, we as customers only care about when Verizon and other companies will make 5G available to us. The good news is, Verizon has begun field testing 5G in real-world locations, including areas in New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Texas. Working with companies such as Samsung, Cisco, and Qualcomm, Verizon hopes that by working with as many partners as possible, they can more quickly deploy the technology to customers.
Of course, even with these developments, we still have no rough timetable on public deployment. For now, testing will likely go on for quite a while. To get a sense for when we can expect 5G’s launch, be on the lookout for Verizon and maybe other companies to announce 5G-supported handsets. That could be a sign we are getting close, but I wouldn’t expect to see/hear anything until either much later this year or in 2017.
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