With Nigerian telecommunication companies, MTN, Globacom, Smile, ntel, Etisalat and others still grappling to properly deploy 4G technology, more advanced countries seem to have moved ahead.
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has completed a cycle of studies on the key performance requirements of the next generation mobile networks (5G technology).
A working group of ITU conducted the study for the International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT)-2020 systems.
The ITU Secretary-General, Houlin Zhao, in a statement, said 5G mobile systems would provide lightning speed, ultra-reliable communications for broadband and the Internet of Things (IoT).
ITU is the UN agency which coordinates telecommunication operations and services throughout the world.
Zhao said: “IMT-2020 will be the global cornerstone for all activities related to broadband communications and the Internet of Things for the future – enriching lives in ways yet to be imagined.
The draft report describes key requirements relating to the minimum technical performance of IMT-2020 candidate radio interface technologies.
It includes data rate, bandwidth, latency, area traffic capacity, energy efficiency and reliability.
The report is expected to be approved at the ITU Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R) 5G meeting in November.
The 5G system is expected to be “crazy fast, crazy stable, and crazy versatile” with 10Gbps speeds.
Current fourth generation (4G) of wireless mobile telecommunications technology succeeding the 3G, with potential and current applications including amended mobile web access, IP telephony, gaming services, high-definition mobile TV, video conferencing, and 3D television.
According to the ITU, a 4G network requires a mobile device to be able to exchange data at 100 Mbit/sec, while a 3G network, on the other hand, can offer data speeds as slow as 3.84 Mbit/sec.
Underscoring the importance of the IMT-2020 standard, Director of ITU’s Radiocommunication Bureau, François Rancy, said: “The standard is set to be the global communication network for the coming decades and is on track to be in placed by 2020.
“The next step is to agree on what will be the detailed specifications for IMT-2020, a standard that will underpin the next generations of mobile broadband and IoT connectivity,” Rancy said.
According to ITU, early technical trials, market trials and deployments of 5G technologies based on the foreseen developments slated for IMT-2020 are not anticipated.
These systems may not provide the full set of capabilities envisaged for IMT-2020, but the results of these early activities will flow forward into, and assist the development of the final complete detailed specifications for IMT-2020, the UN agency said.
ITU added that IMT is the on-going enabler of new trends in communication devices, “from the connected car and intelligent transport systems to augmented reality, holography, and wearable devices, and a key enabler to meet social needs in the areas of mobile education, connected health and emergency telecommunications”.
