At Mobile World Congress 2017, Roger Gurnani, then Verizon's chief information and technology architect, attended a Samsung press conference to discuss a joint venture between the two companies to develop the 5G. Nephew said the two sides are conducting field tests and jokingly said they would see Samsung's 5G handset in a year when nobody knew whether he was joking or not, and even Samsung executives next to him seemed to be surprised.
The early 5G test car parked in Verizon Park, Basking Ridge, New Jersey
The only thing we can be sure of in 2018 is that the 5G handset is not coming in. Apparently, Gengny's comments are still part of the 5G spec, a commitment that is much faster and more responsive than anything before it In some cases we can even revolutionize our lives, for example, it can be used in driverless cars, telemedicine and IoT devices.
So far, however, the 5G is still "promising." Wireless operator AT & T is doing an early 5G test there, unless you're in the middle of several selected locations, such as the Silo Mall in Waco, Texas.
The good news from MWC 2018 is that 5G is steadily shifting from hype to reality.Verizon and AT & T plan to launch limited mobile 5G services this year, with T-Mobile and Sprint launching commercial use cases early next year.Mobile phone manufacturers and Chipmakers are also working hard to prepare for the 2019 launch.
The bad news is that the early 5G was accompanied by a lot of growth pains and the promised 'madness' might or might not come in. After investigating the MWC network experts, the industry wondered if the operators would eventually open After the switch to move the future of 5G:
5G race
At MWC 2018, one can see that US carriers are vying for a 5G lead. As advanced networks become the next big thing, each operator is eager to improve the quality and reputation of its service and hopefully lead the way for consumers direction.
Marcelo Claure, chief executive of Sprint, has promised to set up the first nationwide 5G network by 2019. This year, the company took a big step toward that goal by offering six cities, including Atlanta, Chicago and Los Angeles.) However, Sprint customers will not be able to access 5G until service is released next year.
T-Mobile said it is deploying 5G networks in 30 cities including New York and Los Angeles this year, but it may not launch the service until 2019 because 5G handsets are not yet ready.
AT & T has said it will introduce mobile 5G services to more than a dozen markets, including Atlanta and Dallas, later this year.
Hans Vestberg, chief technology officer at Verizon, said the company will be leading the pack in delivering mobile 5G services, but with no other details, the company also sees 5G as a fixed service to replace The current home network connection, this plan from Sacramento, California began.
There is also a cable company has even started to explore 6G.
All of these plans are enough to make people feel confused. "Neville Ray, chief technology officer at T-Mobile, quipped at the press conference: 'It's kind of confusing, is not it? I feel that way too, I did this to make a living.
Mobile hotspots VS mobile phone
Because 5G handsets are not yet ready, Verizon and AT & T plan to deploy 'Pucks' (mobile hotspot) to capture 5G signals and broadcast Wi-Fi for portable internet connectivity to devices. Pucks and laptops became popular when LTE first appeared Because this is the easiest and cheapest way to launch the next generation of wireless devices.
However, chances are you never get it in. These niche devices have even appeared early in LTE and are very useful to operators because they provide data about how real customers are running the network.
You may be more interested in the first 5G phones, but beware that they may also experience problems with older 4G phones, such as the bulky HTC Thunderbolt device, short battery life and easy overheating.
While Ray said he expects 5G support for high-end flagship products, Andre Fuetsch, chief technology officer for AT & T, said there may be a handset built specifically to support 5G technology, similar to Thunderbolt. He said: 'The first generation of 5G handsets will face many challenges.'
ZTE claims it has tested infrastructures and equipment for some time to avoid these problems, said Cheng Lixin, chief executive of ZTE Mobile Business: 'This is the best way for you to optimize your deployment.'
Also, Verizon is helping to reduce those concerns, said Brian Higgins, director of equipment at Verizon: "We learned a lot by becoming the 4G LTE leader and one of them is how to help our ecology System partners improve infrastructure, equipment, battery life, and applications to take advantage of new technologies. '
Cover the gap
Another problem with 4G LTE in the early days was the coverage glitch: the last minute you were enjoying high speed online access and streaming video and you were kicked back to the 3G network and everything stopped. Back to the 4G area, mobile phones often do not recognize the signal.
Dan Hays, an advisor to PricewaterhouseCoopers, said: 'Consumers should never expect that earlier 5G networks will experience some of the same problems.'
Neville Ray, chief technology officer at T-Mobile, delivered a speech at MWC 2018 explaining how the company uses spectra in different bands
Taking into account the 5G speed should be surprising, is 10 times the existing network to 100 times, this time there may be a more dramatic decline.This applies especially to high frequency radio waves, because of their wireless transmission speed, but The range is small and easily interrupted.
Jefferson Wang, managing director at Accenture Strategy said: "Imagine when you were driving at 96km / h on a motorway and stuck in a 16km per hour street."
Operators want to solve these problems, T-Mobile and Sprint are two companies intend to use low-frequency radio waves on the basis of 5G, to provide a broader coverage, to avoid the return to 4G networks.J Spokes chief technology officer John (John Saw) said: 'Sprint's 5G experience will be more unified.'
But for all operators there will be many places where there is no 5G coverage and this is even more so for the deployment that we will see this year.
The good news is that carriers are also upgrading their 4G networks to speed things up so that the transition will not be that bad as they are deploying a technology called Gigabit LTE that can dramatically increase the current speed.Samsung Galaxy S8 And the upcoming Galaxy S9 and other mobile phones have been able to use it.
Price increased?
Another concern is whether the cost of the network will change as the 5G comes in. Sprint chief executive Klarr reiterated in his MWC keynote that he wants to bring 5G services to market at a premium.
Is this crazy in a highly competitive environment? Jefferson said the model already exists in home broadband, saying: 'You're already paying for higher speeds.'
Sprint Chief Executive Marcelo Claure spoke at MWC 2018 and believes 5G will offer the opportunity to raise service prices
The rest of us are a bit skeptical, and Hayes does not believe consumers will pay a premium because they have not had any significant benefits so far. After all, you can watch "Stranger Things" on 4G handsets as well.
At this year's MWC conference, I asked Verizon's chief technology Westerberg a statement about Gnaini (who has departed) that he expects to see the 5G handset at the MWC in 2019. He paused for a moment and added Said: 'After all, this is a reasonable guess.'