The world’s telecom operator executives are all looking ahead to the next generation of mobile technology, but some see 5G coming to market quicker than others.
"It’s so close. You only need to wait a few years," said Chang-Gyu Hwang, CEO of KT Corp, in a keynote address at Mobile World Congress this week.
"PyeongChang 2018 is just around the corner," he said, referring to the winter Olympic games that will be held in South Korea. "We are going to make it the first 5G Olympics ever."
Korea’s operators aim to roll out trial 5G networks in time for the games, with a view to having commercial services in place a couple of years later.
Hwang did not share any new information on how those plans are progressing, other than saying that his company is "moving aggressively to bring this exciting 5G vision to life."
Meanwhile, even the 2020 timeframe is proving too aggressive for some.
"It’s not for tomorrow or next week, [but] probably 2020 or 2022," said Orange chief executive Stephane Richard.
"We must not jump too fast into the next generation of networks," he insisted. "Let’s enjoy 4G LTE."
Richard warned the audience of the dangers of trying to bring a new mobile system to market too quickly, without adequate preparation.
"We should remember what happened with 3G," he said, referring to the years of delay that came before the technology launched and to the general disappointment with early 3G services.
"5G will be a real industrial project," Richard said. "The timing aspect is very important."
However, there are others that are more keen to get the ball rolling on 5G. Ken Hu, Huawei’s rotating CEO, used his presentation at MWC to point out the shortcomings of 4G.
"5G will be able to help us overcome some of the challenges that cannot be fully addressed by the current generation of mobile technology," Hu said.
4G allows for thousands of connections per cell, but "it is still not enough to meet the future demand," he said. With 5G the number will reach "1 million per square kilometre," facilitating more than 100 billion connections.
Hu also talked up the latency improvement that will come with 5G; 1 millisecond latency is 50 times faster than 4G, something that will be necessary for Internet of Things (IoT) services like self-drive cars. Download speeds will also be significantly faster.
"5G is much more than an upgrade of technology," Hu said. It will enable new applications, business models and industries that are hard to predict at present.
