The 5G Race to the 2020 Finish Line

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By Alexia Sparling, an insider at Lease Advisors

Historically, the United States has been at the forefront of cutting-edge innovation. A continuous pursuit of technological advancement has fueled this reputation. The highly anticipated fifth-generation of wireless connectivity (5G) is expected to far supersede its predecessors with exceptional data speeds. As technology continues to advance, other nations are joining the race to the forefront of development. In order for the U.S. to maintain its position as the leader in cellular technologically, 5G must be a priority.

5G technology has garnered attention around the world, and the race to develop the network has countries vying to the finish. The South Korean government has made 5G a top priority by committing to spend $1.5 billion on its development and plans to deploy the mobile network by 2018—in time to host the next Winter Olympic Games. They claim that mobile communications will be 1,000 times faster than their present speed. Both Japan and the U.S. plan to deploy 5G two years later in the year 2020. In the U.S., Samsung has reportedly tested its platform and aims to launch the 5G mobile network in 2020 as well. In China, a caucus has been established by three of the nation’s ministries in order to promote the development of 5G technology. Similar developmental efforts are also underway in other countries throughout Asia and Europe.

With the targeted release date fast approaching, U.S. carriers are struggling to keep up in the race to 5G. “I think the key right now is defining what the requirements are for 5G,” said Mike Haberman, vice president of network support for Verizon Wireless. “We need to figure out what problem we’re trying to solve” in order to develop the next generation mobile network. Unknown factors continue to puzzle industry experts such as 5G bandwidth standards and the necessary infrastructure. A direct effect of this evolution of cellular technology could include the need to build additional towers to support it. Although the details of the conceptualized structure of the 5G network may be fuzzy, we know that energy efficiency is a priority. Aicha Evans, vice president of the platform engineering group at Intel, warns that 5G’s energy efficiency is crucial; “It’s a social responsibility for all of us or we’re going to fry up this planet.”
Some experts are not so optimistic about the 2020 release date. Dr. Werner Mohr, chair of the 5G Infrastructure Public-Private Partnership (5G PPP) explains that “the 5G timeline remains controlled by external events. The research program is 2014-2020. It should lead to commercialization by then, but it doesn’t mean we will develop systems by 2020.”
Our mobile economy is developing rapidly, and our previous networks designed to manage analog voice cannot sufficiently support the demand for high-speed digital data. The race to 5G is on, and the U.S. must pick up the pace to reach the 2020 finish line.

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