AT&T announces “5G Evolution” – and it is utter nonsense
US network operator AT&T has announced the launch of “5G Evolution” in Texas, with plans to launch in 20 metros by the end of 2017.
Its use of the 5G term in marketing material has been heavily criticised by The Verge, Android Police, and Gizmodo – with Android Police calling it “complete bullshit”.
AT&T defended its use of the term 5G in a press release, stating: “We continue to lay the foundation for our evolution to 5G while the 5G standards are being finalised.”
However, Android Police and Gizmodo remained unconvinced.
According to AT&T, it’s “evolution to 5G” includes upgrades like carrier aggregation, 4×4 MIMO, and 256 QAM.
This is complete nonsense.
As highlighted by multiple reports, all of the upgrades mentioned above are included in the LTE-Advanced specification, which the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and the 3GPP have approved as a 4G technology.
Furthermore, other operators have already implemented the upgrades to their networks, which, at worst, are being marketed as “4G+”.
No 5G standard
The main reason AT&T’s claims are being criticised, though, is that no standards have been evaluated as qualifying as 5G.
The standard defining 5G is only expected to be authorised in 2020.
A workshop will likely be held later this year to complete technical performance specifications, determine an evaluation method and criteria, and design a format of submission.
Potential standards may then be submitted with a deadline, expected to be set for mid-2019.
Once the deadline has passed, standards will be evaluated and those that succeed will be known as IMT-2020, or 5G.
For 5G, the requirements are predicted to be as follows:
- Spectrum Efficiency is required to be 3-times better than IMT-Advanced.
- The peak data rate must be better by a factor of 20.
- Area Traffic Capacity must be 100-times better than IMT-Advanced.
- The standard must work while travelling at 500km/h, to be applicable for magnetic levitation trains.
- Network Energy Efficiency must be 100-times better.
- Latency must be 1 millisecond.
- Connection density must be 1 million connections per square kilometre.
Now read: Don’t believe the 5G hype
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