Nokia has announced plans to implement early 5G specifications, enhancing its ‘5G First’ portfolio with the 3GPP 5G Phase I protocol in view of the level of interest for 5G mobility applications emerging from operators, above all in markets such as the US, China, Japan and South Korea. In a statement, Nokia said the new 5G NR (New Radio) air interface standard, which is due at the beginning of 2018, is designed to support a wide variety of 5G devices and services.
The company added that it’s building on extensive field experience already gained with ‘5G First’ to extend the scope of interoperability testing with a variety of devices. Trials have so far generated valuable insights into areas such as use of radio propagation in higher frequencies, massive MIMO and beamforming, integration with existing networks versus standalone implementations, the use of small cells in 5G deployments and the importance of cloud native core and cloud RAN technologies.
"Nokia is evolving its 5G strategy to drive the industry rapidly towards the adoption of standards-based commercial applications – as early as 2019," said Nokia president of mobile networks Marc Rouanne while calling on regulators and governments to make available spectrum at low-, mid- and high-frequency bands for 5G.
