Intel shared its 5G Smart Stadium collaboration with Tencent, China Unicom, and Nokia. Imagine the people being able to virtually attend the Super Bowl and enjoy some of the same experiences of fans at the actual stadium. Conversely, imagine attending an event where you receive VIP access with private camera feeds.

4. Moscow is building new civic services on 5G. As the top teams compete to become the World Cup 2018 champion. There is yet another spectacle on display at the tournament in Russia. Emerging technologies 5G and AI wave. When the national football teams of Morocco and Iran take the field at Krestovsky Stadium in Saint Petersburg during the 2018 FIFA World Cup on 15 June, more than 60,000 fans were there to cheer them. And, courtesy of more than a dozen specially installed high-definition cameras, the residents of Moscow, about 600 km away, were able to watch the game over a high-speed 5G connection. The capital of Russia had what Evgeniy Novikov, an advisor for the Deputy Minister of the IT Department of Moscow, calls a “5G zone,” an area where viewers can don VR glasses and switch between camera views to watch the game in real time.

5. Blockchain platform VeChain has been chosen to be among the first set of partners for NTT Docomo’s 5G Open Partner Program. NTT Docomo is Japan’s largest telecoms company with over 76 million subscribers. The firm’s recent launch of the 5G Open Partner Program aims towards fostering the industrial use of the latest generation of mobile networks by 2020. Blockchain technology is set to have an impact on many industries. VeChain started by focusing on a sector that’s a niche for innovation, the supply chain. VeChain’s technology can securely track and verify products. The problem of counterfeit goods in Asia is not only detrimental to the profits of legitimate businesses, but they can also be deadly.

VeChain said in a PR, “It is our goal is to enhance and enrich our current data services capacity within traceability, supply chain management, and smartphones for our users. With our ongoing effort to bring traceability use cases in Japan into our ecosystem, the 5G program will bring additional value to VeChain’s presence in the region.” VeChain has since expanded its operation from the supply chain to launching its own blockchain platform called Thor. VeChain said, “With the enterprise-level platform it aims to connect blockchain technology to the real world by providing a comprehensive governance structure, a robust economic model, advanced IoT integration, and to pioneer real-world applications.”

6. Qualcomm announced its first 5G compatible smartphones are now a step closer after it has made the world’s first Millimetre Wave antennas and sub-6Ghz RF modules now available to device manufacturers. 5G networks will use a mixture of the spectrum, including the long-range, low-level 700MHz band, the mid-range 3.4GHz band, and high range Millimetre Wave (MMWave) spectrum that had previously been considered too challenging for mobile communications. MMWave frequencies offer significant capacity, but low range, making them ideal for use in urban areas. The first commercial 5G services will go live later this year. It will use the Millimetre Wave spectrum to power Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) broadband.

7. Ericsson has pledged to boost its US investment to support the acceleration of 5G network deployments across the country. Investments from Ericsson will fall into two categories: 1) Increase research and development work done close to customers in the US, and 2) Increase flexibility to shorten the timeline for new product introduction and product delivery to customers. Börje Ekholm, President and CEO of Ericsson, says: “The United States is our largest market, accounting for a quarter of Ericsson’s business over the last seven years. To serve the demand of these fast-moving service providers, we are strengthening our investment in the US to be even closer to our customers and meet their accelerated 5G deployment plans.”

8. India demonstrated using Ericsson`s 5G test bed, and 5G New Radio (NR) delivered throughput of 5.7 Gbps and ultra-low latency of 3 milliseconds. The demonstration using Ericsson`s 5G test bed and 5G New Radio (NR) delivered a performance of 5.7 Gbps and ultra-low latency of 3 milliseconds. According to a latest Ericsson study, 5G technology will enable a $27.3 billion revenue potential for the Indian telecom operators by 2026. The most significant 5G opportunity will be seen in sectors like manufacturing, energy and utilities followed by public safety and health sectors. The retail industry in India will offer potential 5G-enabled revenue of up to $1.15 billion by 2026.

Apart from that, the state-owned telecom firm BSNL expects to start 5G service trials by the end of 2018. The chairman and MD Anupam Shrivastava said, “We had interaction with Nokia on 5G. Next, we are going to present about our requirements after which field trail concept will be rolled-out. It should start before the end of 2018.” The state-run firm has also started the discussion with Larsen & Toubro and HP for end devices that will be required for 5G services. He also mentioned the signing of its knowledge sharing agreement on 5G technology with network firm Coriant.

9. The leaders of the five Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden aim to be the first interconnected 5G region in the world. They have signed a letter of intent to accelerate the development of fifth-generation mobile systems “5G.” The move aims to support these countries efforts to be among the world front-runners in the roll-out of 5G wireless services. The announcement was made at an annual summit of the regional leaders that was hosted by Swedish Prime Minister, Stefan Lofven. The agreement involves the backing of the governments and many of the leading telecom companies operating in the region, including infrastructure suppliers Ericsson and Nokia and mobile operators Telenor, Telia, TDC, Tele2, Iceland Telecom and Vodafone Iceland.

10. The top five carriers in the U.S. AT&T pointed to launching 5G mobility services in Dallas, Waco, and Atlanta later this year. T-Mobile will focus on its 5G vision centred on enhanced mobile broadband, extensive connectivity, and new industry verticals. Conversely, possible merger partner Sprint announced expanding its mobile 5G service to three additional markets and an Internet of Things (IoT) program aimed at bringing packaged solutions to market quickly. The latter is a brilliant strategy, and that takes the IoT wireless wide area networking connectivity vision to reality. According to Sprint, over 550,000 developers are part of the newly launched IoT Factory ecosystem, and that massive scale should enable a successful program. Verizon reinforced its push into fixed 5G services with infrastructure partner Samsung, and U.S. Cellular spoke to rural 5G use cases around agriculture. The first commercial 5G projects are expected to launch in the US by the end of 2018 followed by Japan and South Korea in 2019. China will join the fray in 2020 whereas in Europe the deployments will slowly start by 2020.

The summarise the expansion of 5G network could mean a vast capital expenditure is rising to approx. 16 to 17 per cent of revenues generated by the mobile industry from 2020, up from 15 per cent now, said Mats Granryd, director general of the Global Trade Body GSMA.GSMA, which represents nearly 800 operators and around 300 suppliers, forecasts capital expenditure (CapEx) on mobile networks worldwide would be $500 billion over the three years between 2018 to 2020. To find the extra cash for the 5G rollout, operators are looking to shut down 2G and 3G networks to reduce the costs of running multiple networks and to free up the spectrum for 5G.