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White House pledges $400 million for 5G research
Following yesterday's FCC vote to adopt new rules to guide the development of 5G technology, the Obama Administration is pledging support for research. More specifically, the White House announced a $400 million Advanced Wireless Research Initiative that will be led by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The project aims to build four "city-scale testing platforms" over the next 10 years. In the announcement, the administration reiterated that the US is the first to free up spectrum above 24 GHz for the high-speed networks that are said to be 100 times faster than the 4G we use today.
FCC adopts new rules for the foundation of 5G networks
We knew it was coming, and now the FCC has made it official. Today the commission voted to adopt new rules that would facilitate the development of 5G wireless networks in the US. More specifically, the guidelines relate to wireless spectrum above 24GHz and make the United States the first country in the world to make the spectrum available for so-called next-gen networks. The FCC said in a press release that its approaching 5G the way it has approached 4G (LTE) networks in the past, a strategy that will "set a strong foundation for the rapid advancement to next-generation 5G."
FCC lays out its big 5G push
Speaking at the National Press Club on Monday, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler made an impassioned plea for the US to take the lead in developing a wireless 5G standard. "To seize the opportunities before us, we need the next generation of wireless connectivity – a fifth generation, or 5G," he said. What's more he laid forth a plan to do it. On Thursday, Wheeler will seek to "open up" a swath of high-band spectrum for 5G applications; he's calling it the Spectrum Frontiers proceeding.
5G was the real star of Mobile World Congress
Expect 2016 to be the year when all of the talk around 5G starts to feel like more than hype. It seemed as if the big tech companies couldn't shut up about it at Mobile World Congress this week -- and for good reason. It's been over six years since LTE 4G started rolling out, and a finalized 5G standard is expected to arrive around 2018. Now's the time to start exploring the new frontier if you've got a stake in mobile. Naturally, there were plenty of demos and jargon-filled press releases about 5G during the show. But there were also some impressive demos and a palpable excitement in the air for what's to come next.
Samsung proves why 5G is necessary with a robot arm
We've been hearing murmurs about 5G for years now, but it seems like this Mobile World Congress is the one where companies have started to get serious about it. Samsung and Deutsche Telekom, for example, put together a 5G demo that shows off how the technology is a serious upgrade from today's 4G LTE networks. The big takeaway? "Faster" means many different things.
AT&T gets ready to test 5G technologies in 2016
AT&T has been working on possible 5G technologies, such as millimeter waves, for years. Now that it's time to get serious, it's teaming up with Ericsson and Intel to ramp up its development in the lab in the second quarter of the year. After that, it's moving its 5G endeavors out of the lab and into the field, starting with outdoor tests over the summer.
The US wants the world to offer more airwaves for 5G and drones
The US doesn't just want to carve out space for 5G cellular service on its own frequencies -- it wants the rest of the world to follow suit. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is calling on other countries to free up more of their wireless spectrum for the sake of 5G, drones and flight tracking systems. Ideally, this would create a wide-enough demand for advanced wireless that the economies of scale make sense. Your favorite phone or robot makers might be more likely to embrace the technology if they know that it'll be useful across the planet, rather than one or two regions.
Verizon will start testing speedy 5G wireless in 2016
Fast 4G data is only just becoming relatively commonplace in the US, but Verizon is already thinking about the next big thing. The carrier just unveiled plans to trial 5G wireless service sometime during 2016. You won't likely see it deploy 5G in earnest until 2017 at best, but the technology theoretically makes even modern-day LTE look pokey. You could get 50 times the peak bandwidth, under 10 milliseconds of lag and headroom for many more devices. In short, this is the cellular tech you've been waiting for -- it nearly eliminates the gap in quality between landline internet access and your smartphone.
FCC starts the process for making '5G' gigabit mobile data a reality
We're barely seeing 4G take hold here in the States and the FCC has begun the process to push into 5G for mobile data. The government's communications council voted unanimously to start looking into accessing the higher-than-24GHz frequency spectrum that was previously thought to be, as Reuters notes, unusable by mobile networks. So what are the benefits? Gigabit internet connections on the go, for starters -- something our current sub-3GHz spectrum can't quite handle -- similar to the ones Samsung just tested. Yeah, now you're excited. The feds believe that using these "millimeter waves" would allow for higher bandwidth for more people and devices at speeds that outclass most homes' broadband.
Samsung's experimental 5G network delivers 150MB per second at freeway speeds
5G isn't quite a thing yet. Industrial standards and the finer details are yet to be completely cemented, but that's not stopping companies with a thumb in the carrier network pie trying to show us some crazy (but awesome) ideal of future wireless... ness. Samsung's next in line, and it's been able to crank its 5G network download speeds to 940MB while stationary, which is bananas. However, the company then decided to take the testing outdoors, to the racetrack, and apparently notched download speeds of around 150MB per second, while racing around at 100KPH (roughly 62MPH). Samsung says these impressive figures are due to the high-frequency 28GHz signal used. Previously, this meant a short range, but the company says it's got around that weakness with "Hybrid Adaptive Array Technology" that boosts the range of the signal. And if that collaboration between Korea and Europe still stands, these ridiculous on-the-go speeds could well make their way outside Asia. Please. Please.
Europe and South Korea will share their 5G know-how
There's a fine line between being fashionably late and arriving just as the party's over, which is the problem Europe suffered when it came to implementing 4G mobile networks. That's why the EU is now teaming up with South Korea to co-operate in developing 5G in the hope of getting back to the front of the line. In addition to sharing cash and know-how on developing the standard, both parties will harmonize radio spectrums to avoid the problems with roaming that were suffered in the race to implement LTE. Of course, no-one believes that a standard for 5G will be ready for at least another year, but there's a hope that maybe Europe won't be so far behind the US as it was last time.
Samsung, Nokia join 5G trials in Japan, but crazy speeds still far away
We hope you're happy with 4G, because 5G's magical land of unicorns and 10Gbps speeds still isn't coming until 2020 or so. However, Japanese carrier DoCoMo is still hard at work developing the tech and has now begun trials with some formidable hardware allies. Those include Samsung (who already tested 1Gbps 5G hardware in Korea), along with Nokia, Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent, to name a few. The group aims to see if high frequency bands (greater than 6GHz) can support speeds up to 10Gbps, even if masses of devices in a small area are vying for bandwidth. The first tests will be limited to an indoor research facility in Japan, then move to outdoor field trials next year. DoCoMo hopes standardization will come in 2016, but there's a lot of hurdles to clear before the mythical 1-second wireless movie download is upon us.
Samsung ready for 5G rollout in 2020, has reportedly pulled down 1Gbps in tests
LTE might be all the rage right now, but next generation mobile technology is already in the works. According to Korea's Yonhap News Agency, Samsung has successfully tested its 5G platform, pulling down data at 1Gbps in recent tests. The company apparently needed 64 antenna elements to pull the trick off, but says the technology will be available to customers by 2020 -- matching the European Commission's goal quite nicely. It may not be the fastest 5G test we've seen in recent months, but we're not going to scoff at progress.
