Ericsson Raises Stake on 5G Ahead 2020 Launch

Ericsson and increasing number of mobile network operators, equipment vendors, research organizations and even government at the 2015 Mobile World Congress, (MWC) held in Barcelona, Spain, showcased brilliant solutions, especially in preparation for next generation technology called 5G in 2020.

Industry watchers have predicted that 5G will do a lot better than 4G in terms of video, faster download times and denser network coverage. Majority of vendors had also predicted a 100 to 1,000 fold increase in network capacity.

Again, the technology some experts said will also have to come to terms with a new challenge due to  the fact that much of the world’s spectrum in lower frequency bands is used up, remaining the higher frequency spectrum that can only carry traffic over shorter distances.

It is said that Spectrum will still increase the upgrade to 5G, in accordance with time line to complete 5G standardization by 2020.

Ericsson and increasing number of mobile network operators, equipment vendors, research organizations and even government are locked in discussions on 5G and its key enabling technologies.

However, Ericsson presentation held sway at the MWC 2015 as the company demonstrated a wide range of the world-leading technologies and solutions that enable the Networked Society whereby everything that can benefit from being connected will be connected.

According to Ericsson Chief Technical Officer, Ulf Ewaldsson, the company has been in the fore front in all generations of mobile networks, adding that “Today, we are mapping out a new trail while leading the industry evolution towards 5G.”

He maintained that 5G is an evolution rather than a revolution, stressing that “It will enable higher data rates everywhere. It will bring support for very low latency and very high reliability, and the possibility of low cost devices with ultra-high reliability. It will enable the Networked Society to be realized to its full potential.”

He explained that 5G will also help realize the vision of basically unlimited access to information and sharing of data anywhere and anytime, for anyone and anything.

“The aim is for 5G networks to be highly efficient, faster, support more users, more devices, more services, and new use cases without a corresponding impact on cost or carbon footprint. These are the requirements of this new generation of mobile communication”, he added.

On his part, Ericsson Chief Executive Officer, Hans Vestberg told the gathering that Ericsson will deliver to the promise of 5G, adding that company has the state of the art technologies to deploy 5G to the increasing number of operators already approaching change maker in the networked society.

Daily Times learnt that 5G performance in commercial mobile network is expected in 2020 even though Ericsson has already achieved speeds of 5 Gbps in live, over-the-air demonstrations of the company’s pre-standard 5G network technology.

One of the hurdles that next generation 5G mobile communications will need to overcome, according to Ericsson experts is the predicted levels of traffic which may be 1,000 times that of today. Another part of the hitch is the billions of devices that will be connected to networks, some of which may be mission critical.

These devices, experts from Ericsson said may not generate a significant amount of traffic individually, but together their traffic is significant and their design is lightweight with an emphasis on low-energy consumption.

It would be recalled that Ericsson at the MWC showed world-leading technology, service capabilities, and innovations.

Experts are confident that Ultra-lean design, spectrum flexibility, allocations; and low latency are the technologies that will support future demand of 5G.