The First 5G Network Standard has Finally Been Approved

The mobile industry has hit another milestone with the approval of the first standalone 5G network standard.

3GPP, an international standards organization, confirmed yesterday that it has officially approved the first standalone 5G network standard. The approval comes six months after the non-standalone 5G was approved last December.

“The freeze of Standalone 5G NR radio specifications represents a major milestone in the quest of the wireless industry towards realizing the holistic 5G vision,” Balázs Bertényi, Chairman of 3GPP TSG RAN said in a statement.

“5G NR Standalone systems not only dramatically increase the mobile broadband speeds and capacity, but also open the door for new industries beyond telecommunications that are looking to revolutionize their ecosystem through 5G.”

A separate statement confirming the completion of the 5G system specification was also issued by 3GPP TSG SA chairman, Erik Guttman.

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“The 5G System specification has now reached its official stage of completion, thanks to the intense efforts of hundreds of engineers over the past three years,” he said. “The 5G System opens the way for commercialization of services based on the New Radio and 5G Core Network and their advanced extensible capabilities.”

“The new system provides the foundation for ongoing specialization for support of new business sectors, for unlike 4G and past generations, 5G supports the very specific requirements and individual service characteristics of diverse communications. Already, 3GPP activities have begun to leverage the 5G system to realize opportunities in areas such as industrial automation.”

With the approval of the standalone 5G network standard, the first commercial 5G services are expected to go live as soon as next year. The advent of the 5G system will provide people with high capacity, low latency, and ultrafast mobile broadband speed. Aside from that, it would also offer fixed wireless access (FWA) broadband, new potential applications for Industrial Internet of Things (IoT), and connected homes and vehicles.

“Two years ago, 5G was seen as a vision or even just a hype – with the closing of Rel-15 3GPP has made 5G a reality within a very short time,” Georg Mayer, chairman of 3GPP TSG CT, said in a statement. “The outcome is an amazing set of standards that will not only provide higher data rates and bandwidth to end customers but which is open and flexible enough to satisfy the communication needs of different industries.”