5th generation mobile network (5G) History

•     In April 2008, NASA partnered with Geoff Brown and Machine-to-Machine Intelligence (M2Mi) Corp to develop 5G communication technology.[11]
•     In 2008, the South Korean IbjngT R&D program of "5G mobile communication systems based on beam-division multiple access and relays with group cooperation" was formed.[21]
•     In August 2012, New York University founded NYU WIRELESS, a multi-disciplinary academic research centre that has conducted pioneering work in 5G wireless communications.[72][73][74]
•     On 8 October 2012, the UK's University of Surrey secured £35M for a new 5G research centre, jointly funded by the British government's UK Research Partnership Investment Fund (UKRPIF) and a consortium of key international mobile operators and infrastructure providers, including Huawei, Samsung, Telefonica Europe, Fujitsu Laboratories Europe, Rohde & Schwarz, and Aircom International. It will offer testing facilities to mobile operators keen to develop a mobile standard that uses less energy and less radio spectrum while delivering speeds faster than current 4G with aspirations for the new technology to be ready within a decade.[75][76][77][78]
•     On 1 November 2012, the EU project "Mobile and wireless communications Enablers for the Twenty-twenty Information Society" (METIS) starts its activity towards the definition of 5G. METIS achieved an early global consensus on these systems. In this sense, METIS played an important role of building consensus among other external major stakeholders prior to global standardization activities. This was done by initiating and addressing work in relevant global fora (e.g. ITU-R), as well as in national and regional regulatory bodies.[79]
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•     Also in November 2012, the iJOIN EU project was launched, focusing on "small cell" technology, which is of key importance for taking advantage of limited and strategic resources, such as the radio wave spectrum. According to Günther Oettinger, the European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society (2014–19), "an innovative utilization of spectrum" is one of the key factors at the heart of 5G success. Oettinger further described it as "the essential resource for the wireless connectivity of which 5G will be the main driver".[80] iJOIN was selected by the European Commission as one of the pioneering 5G research projects to showcase early results on this technology at the Mobile World Congress 2015 (Barcelona, Spain).
•     In February 2013, ITU-R Working Party 5D (WP 5D) started two study items: (1) Study on IMT Vision for 2020 and beyond, and; (2) Study on future technology trends for terrestrial IMT systems. Both aiming at having a better understanding of future technical aspects of mobile communications towards the definition of the next generation mobile.[81]
•     On 12 May 2013, Samsung Electronics stated that they have developed a "5G" system. The core technology has a maximum speed of tens of Gbit/s (gigabits per second). In testing, the transfer speeds for the "5G" network sent data at 1.056 Gbit/s to a distance of up to 2 kilometres.with the use of an 8*8 MIMO.[82][83]
•     In July 2013, India and Israel have agreed to work jointly on development of fifth generation (5G) telecom technologies.[84]
•     On 1 October 2013, NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone), the same company to launch world's first 5G network in Japan, wins Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Award at CEATEC for 5G R&D efforts.[85]
•     On 6 November 2013, Huawei announced plans to invest a minimum of $600 million into R&D for next generation 5G networks capable of speeds 100 times faster than modern LTE networks.[86]
•     In September 2014, the first comprehensive treatment of millimeter wave wireless communications systems was published. The book, "Millimeter Wave Wireless Communications"[87] published by Prentice Hall, provides an overview of key concepts from communications, circuits, antennas, propagation, and emerging global standards. Written by four leading practitioners in mmWave wireless communications: Theodore Rappaport (NYU WIRELESS), Robert Heath (UTAustin), Robert Daniels (UTAustin), and James Murdock (UTAustin).
•     On 23 April 2014, Nokia Solutions and Networks and the NYU WIRELESS; Research Centre at the New York University Tandon School of Engineering held the first Brooklyn 5G Summit. The event brought together wireless and mobile industry research and development leaders in academia, business and government to explore the future of 5G wireless technology, with special focus on antennas, propagation and channel modeling. [88]
•     On 8 May 2014, NTT DoCoMo start testing 5G mobile networks with Alcatel Lucent, Ericsson, Fujitsu, NEC, Nokia and Samsung.[89]
•     In June 2014, the EU research project CROWD was selected by the European Commission to join the group of "early 5G precursor projects". These projects contribute to the early showcasing of potential technologies for the future ubiquitous, ultra-high bandwidth "5G" infrastructure. CROWD was included in the list of demonstrations at the European Conference on Networks and Communications (EuCNC) organized by the EC in June 2014 (Italy).
•     In October 2014, the research project TIGRE5-CM (Integrated technologies for management and operation of 5G networks) is launched with the aim to design an architecture for future generation mobile networks, based on the SDN (Software Defined Networking) paradigm. IMDEA Networks Institute is the project coordinator.
•     In November 2014, it was announced that Megafon and Huawei will be developing a 5G network in Russia. A trial network will be available by the end of 2017, just in time for the 2018 World Cup.[90][91]
•     On 19 November 2014, Huawei and SingTel announced the signing of a MoU to launch a joint 5G innovation program.[92]
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•     On 22 June 2015, Greek government announced to Euro-group council talks that potential licensing 5G and 4G technology would offer 350 million euros earnings, as a result they were criticised for misleading European leaders in producing potential earnings from a technology that is supposed to roll-out after 2020.[93]
•     On 1 July 2015, METIS-II project was launched. This project aims at designing the 5G radio access network, building the basis for the multi-service allocation on an holistic cross-layer and cross-air interface framework.[30]
•     On 8 September 2015, Verizon announced a roadmap to begin testing 5G in field trials in the United States in 2016.[94]
•     On 1 October 2015, the French Operator Orange announced to be about to deploy 5G technologies to begin the first trial in January 2016 in Belfort, a city of Eastern France.[95]
•     On 22 January 2016, the Swedish mobile network equipment maker Ericsson said it had partnered with TeliaSonera to develop 5G services based on TeliaSonera's network and Ericsson's 5G technology. The partnership aims to provide 5G services to TeliaSonera customers in Stockholm, Sweden and Tallinn, Estonia in 2018. Sweden has long been a pioneer ICT nation and notably Ericsson and TeliaSonera launched the world's first commercial 4G network in Sweden in 2009.[96]
•     On 22 February 2016, NTT DoCoMo and Ericsson succeed in World's first trial to achieve a cumulative 20Gbit/s with two simultaneously connected mobile devices in 5G outdoor trial.[97]
•     Also on 22 February 2016, Samsung and Verizon joined to begin trial for 5G.[98]
•     On 29 January 2016, Google revealed that they are developing a 5G network called SkyBender. They planned to distribute this connection through sun-powered drones.[99]
•     In mid-March 2016, the UK government confirmed plans to make the UK a world leader in 5G. Plans for 5G are little more than a footnote in the country's 2016 budget, but it seems the UK government wants it to be a big focus going forward.[100]
•     On 2 June 2016, the first comprehensive book on 5G was launched. The book "5G Mobile and Wireless Communications Technology" by Cambridge University Press is edited by Afif Osseiran (Ericsson), Jose F. Monserrat (UPV) and Patrick Marsch (Nokia Bell Labs) and covers everything from the most likely use cases, spectrum aspects, and a wide range of technology options to potential 5G system architectures.[5]
•     On 7 July 2016 European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society, Günther Oettinger received the 5G Manifesto for timely deployment of 5G in Europe which sets out industry recommendations on how the EU can support and foster 5G innovation and deployment, and timelines for 5G demonstrations and commercial deployment, signed by representatives of BT Group, Deutsche Telekom, Ericsson, Hutchison Whampoa Europe, Inmarsat, Nokia, Orange, Proximus, KPN, SES, Tele2, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Telekom Austria, Telenor, Telia Company and Vodafone.[101]
•     On 14 July 2016, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) unanimously passed a proposal to free up vast amounts of new bandwidth in the underutilised high-band spectrum for the next generation of wireless communications (5G). The Spectrum Frontiers Proposal (SFP) will double the amount of millimeter-wave (mmWave) unlicensed spectrum to 14 GHz and create four times the amount of flexible, mobile-use spectrum the FCC has licensed to date.[102]
•     On 17 October 2016, Qualcomm announced the first 5G modem, the Snapdragon X50, as the first commercial 5G mobile chipset.[103][104]
•     In January 2017, Reliance Jio and Samsung collaborated to upgrade its existing 4G LTE-A network to 5G in India.[105]
•     In February 2017, India's government run telecom operator BSNL collaborated with Nokia for setting up 5G networks.[106]
•     In March 2017, India's Airtel announced a partnership with Nokia to set up 5G mobile and IoT networks in the country.[107]
•     On 21 March 2017, Latvia's LMT installed the first mobile 5G station in Latvia at the new Natural Sciences Centre of the University of Latvia.[108]
•     On 16 June 2017, Turkcell break 5G mmWave speed test record, with a connection speed of 70.77 Gbit/s.[109][110]
•     On 29 June 2017 the Satellite and Terrestrial Network for 5G (SaT5G) consortium announced the start of a 30-month project for the seamless, and economically viable, integration of satellite into 5G networks, improving the ubiquity, resilience and efficiency of 5G services, and opening new markets in media distribution, transport and underserved areas. The consortium is funded by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 programme and comprises 16 members, including Airbus Defence and Space, Avanti Communications, BT, Broadpeak, Gilat Satellite Networks, OneAccess, Thales Alenia Space, TNO, University of Surrey, Zodiac Inflight Innovation, and SES, whose geostationary orbit and medium earth orbit high throughput satellites are able to provide the capacity.[111]
•     In June 2017, Sri Lanka Telecom becomes the first Telco to successfully field test Pre-5G LTE Advanced Pro Technology in South Asia.[112]
•     In July 2017, Telecom Italia Mobile signed a memorandum of understanding with the government of San Marino to upgrade its 4G network to 5G. It would be the first nationwide 5G network in the world.[113]
•     On 18 July 2017, the 28 telecom ministers of the EU and Norway signed a declaration of intent in Tallinn, Estonia, seeking "…to establish a common baseline on future 5G standards and confirm the willingness of member states to position Europe as the lead market for 5G."[114]
•     On 22 August 2017, the ground-breaking 5G technology capability trial was carried out by Dialog Axiata with technology partners Ericsson and Huawei at the Dialog Iconic in Colombo.[115]
•     On 29 September 2017, at the EU Digital Summit in Tallinn, Estonia, a partnership of Ericsson, Intel and Telia Eesti announced that they had implemented the first live public 5G network in Europe at the Port of Tallinn to connect with Tallink cruise ships at the port.[116]
•     On 17 October 2017, Qualcomm announced the first 5G mobile connection, with a connection speed of 1 Gbit/s.[117][118]
•     On 29 November 2017, Verizon Communications Inc. announced it will be deploying 5G wireless residential broadband services in five U.S. cities, starting in the second half of 2018.[119]