Sport leads the 5G charge

A critical milestone on the road to 5G was achieved last month - official approval of standalone specifications by international telecoms standards organisation 3GPP.

Effectively, the agreement means the industry is now in the final leg of the race to roll out 5G commercially, allowing broadband-equivalent download speeds over mobile networks.

Underscoring the mobile industry’s excitement about the huge revenue generating potential of this fifth and final generation cellular network (so good is 5G there won’t be a 6G), 3GPP chair Georg Mayer said: “Two years ago, 5G was seen as a vision or even just a hype — with the closing of [the new specification] 3GPP has made 5G a reality within a very short time.”

The agreed specifications allow chip, device and network developers to launch 5G products which are not tied to legacy 4G technologies.

They will provide a platform for…