T-Mobile 5G plans similar to AT&T, tied to standards work

T-Mobile US has joined AT&T in taking a more cautious approach to the deployment of so-called “5G” service, both of which are counter to Verizon Wireless’ aggressive 5G plans.

In a blog post touting the carrier’s 2015 network advances, T-Mobile US CTO Neville Ray noted the carrier was indeed interested in 5G, but added hurdles remained before the industry was ready for its next technology evolution.

“And yes, when 5G is ready, you bet T-Mobile will be ready to deliver the benefits to our customers,” Ray wrote. “But don’t be too distracted by certain carriers teasing premature promises of 5G today. The industry standards don’t even exist for 5G yet, but if you look at what T-Mobile has being doing to give customers an advanced LTE experience (a prerequisite to 5G), you’ll see that we fully intend to bring 5G to the market in a very real way when the time comes.”

Among domestic carriers, Verizon Wireless appears to be the most bullish on 5G, announcing at this year’s CTIA Super Mobility event in September plans to begin network trials in 2016, and a commercial launch in 2017. The carrier said it expects the eventual standard to support 50 times the network throughput of current LTE networks, latency in the single-digit milliseconds and the ability to support increased network demand from a growing number of connected devices and the “Internet of Things.”

“5G is no longer a dream of the distant future,” said Roger Gurnani, EVP and chief information and technology architect for Verizon. “We feel a tremendous sense of urgency to push forward on 5G and mobilize the ecosystem by collaborating with industry leaders and developers to usher in a new generation of innovation.”

Partners for Verizon Wireless’ 5G push are set to include Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco Systems, Ericsson, Nokia Networks, Qualcomm and Samsung.

Verizon Wireless was also the most aggressive domestic carrier in rolling out LTE technology, moving forward with its deployment in 2010 prior to the standard being fully agreed upon.

AT&T has taken a similar tact to T-Mobile US, holding back on any moves into the 5G space until the industry moves on a standard.

“We’re not at a point to be making promises or commitments to customers as to what 5G is,” said Glenn Lurie, CEO of AT&T Mobility, at the CTIA trade show. “We as an industry have been really good at overpromising and underdelivering when it comes to new technology.”

The International Telecommunications Union, which is the body designated to establish “G” standards, only recently came out with its official name for 5G (IMT-2020) that highlights the expected 2020 timeframe in which most expect the technology to be ready for commercial deployments.

Core tenants to 5G are expected to include more diverse spectrum bands, greater use of small cells and deeper integration of virtualization technology using software-defined networking, network functions virtualization and cloud platforms.

Some analyst firms have noted current hype surrounding 5G will only confuse the market.

“The 5G debate has started with great fanfare, hype and confusion, but little substance about what it is exactly and what it is not,” said Stéphane Téral, research director for mobile infrastructure and carrier economics at IHS. “For now, the mindset is still locked into mobile broadband as we know it with LTE, so it’s good that the [International Telecommunications Union] has just stepped in to define 5G in its brand new IMT-2020.”

Téral added the market is still struggling to meet the full potential of 4G, which should be the main focus of carriers looking to match consumer demand before taking the next leap.

“We are slowly but surely moving to true 4G, and that’s good news,” said Téral. “However, most users already believe they are on 4G, and that’s the bad news because the experience is far from consistent and is falling short of expectations. How many times does your smartphone display LTE or 4G and you still see the infamous spinning wheel?”

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