When 5G arrives will be determined by what 5G turns out to be

Question

Q: When 5G arrives will be determined by what 5G turns out to be

Answer 1

there are currently two differing views of what 5G is. The first view makes its implementation somewhat intangible – 5G will become a commercial reality when sufficient industry voices say so, but this will be something that is difficult to measure by any recognisable metric. The second approach is more concrete in that it has a distinct set of technical objectives, meaning that when a service is launched that meets those objectives it will count as the advent of 5G. As the requirements identified for 5G are a combination of both visions, in some cases the requirement set is self-contradictory – for example, it would not be possible to have a new RAN with beam forming and meet a requirement for power reduction, because beam forming uses a lot more power than today’s RAN. As a result, there must be an established answer to the question of what 5G is before there can be an answer to the question of when it will arrive.