China Mobile to Begin Large-Scale 5G Testing This Year

Qualcomm, ZTE, and China Mobile have announced plans to start interoperability testing and outdoor trials for the new 5G radio specifications being developed by the 3GPP group (via DigiTimes).

The interoperability testing and trials will launch in China starting in the second half of 2017, with the goal of the trials being to showcase how 5G NR technologies can efficiently achieve multi-gigabit per second data rates at lower latency and better reliability than today's network, Qualcomm stated in a company release.

After large-scale testing of 5G networks in 2017, China Mobile aims to continue with deployment testing in 2018, and commercial operations starting in 2020, according to the report. The trials will use device prototypes from Qualcomm and base station solutions from ZTE, and follow guidelines from China Mobile.

The announcement indicates an acceleration of China Mobile's schedule for 5G development in the country, as the company looks to keep abreast of mobile carriers in the U.S., Europe, Japan and South Korea.

Earlier this month, AT&T announced it would begin trialing 5G wireless technologies in the U.S. this year and said it anticipated 5G speeds to be 10 to 100 times faster than average 4G LTE connections. However, widespread rollout across AT&T's network isn't expected until 2020.

There's no information as yet on Apple's plans for 5G uptake. Appl supported LTE-Advanced – a faster standard of 4G LTE – fairly rapidly with the launch of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, but the older 3G and LTE wireless technologies were both available for years before Apple adopted them. Going on AT&T's and 3GPP's timelines, a 5G iPhone is unlikely to be released for at least another three to four years.

Tags: China, China Mobile, Qualcomm, 5G

Top Rated Comments

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Col4bin

26 months ago

Hard to imagine that 5G is almost upon us. Here in the US I live in a densely populated area between 2 cities and my AT&T 4G LTE coverage is STILL spotty at best on my iPhone 7 Plus. It would be nice to see the major carriers actually bolstering their infrastructure and expanding their LTE coverage maps a little more quickly than they do. Until it is more widespread and accessible to more rural areas outside of the cities and travel corridors that connect them, for many consumers, 4G and soon 5G will continue to be marketing points for advertising and little more.

Rating: 3 Votes

swein1992

26 months ago

where's the demand?

Umm...770million 4G subscribers wanting to upgrade?

Rating: 2 Votes

Porco

26 months ago

If I made a joke a about finally getting a 5G PowerBook in the 2020s would that get modded or is it enough of a twist? ;)

Anyway, faster is good of course but as people are saying, getting 4G more widespread would be a better priority for most people. But maybe 5G will help push 4G too, so it'd be a win-win... ?

Rating: 1 Votes

Fzang

26 months ago

The data costs in China are pretty outrageous though.

Rating: 1 Votes

TheShadowKnows!

26 months ago

Umm...770million 4G subscribers wanting to upgrade?

Will Wireless ever replace Cable to the Home? (Fiber or Coaxial).

If so, technology that enables all-wireless broadband delivery to the home will have significant game-changing, social and economic, impact.

Rating: 1 Votes

Fzang

26 months ago

It depends whether your white or Chinese, unsurprisingly. Normal prices are ~$3/GB. If you want the English international prepaid SIM, China Unicom charges you $35 for 2 GB.

Compare to HK where it's around $7/GB, and a T-Mobile style unlimited would run you about $100/month.

(The complainers in America would like to believe that its 25 cents for unlimited in China.)

Checked Mobile and Unicom, and they're both ridiculously expensive.

My current plan in Denmark is like $0.6 per GB for 18 GB total.