MediaTek Inc (聯發科) on Thursday joined peers including Qualcomm Inc and the world’s major telecom operators in announcing the completion of the first implementable 5G New Radio (NR) specification at the 3GPP RAN plenary meeting in Lisbon.
The completion of the first 5G NR standard would set the stage for the global mobile industry to start full-scale development of 5G NR for large-scale trials and commercial deployments as early as 2019, the company said in a statement.
“This milestone is an important step toward making 5G NR a commercial reality,” MediaTek chief technology officer Kevin Jou (周漁君) said. “With the standard becoming stable, our focus is now on delivering viable commercial solutions that would enable the use of 5G NR technology to its full potential.”
MediaTek is the nation’s biggest mobile chip designer. On Monday the company unveiled its new 5G solutions, including those supporting data transmission on 38 gigahertz (GHz) or 39GHz, as well as on small-cell base stations.
Qualcomm Technologies Inc, a fully owned subsidiary of Qualcomm, said the company is excited to be part of this milestone and at the forefront making the 5G vision a reality in 2019.
“We look forward to continue working with our mobile industry peers to bring 5G NR commercial networks and devices in 2019 in smartphone and other form factors, for both sub-6GHz and millimeter wave [mmWave] frequency bands,” Qualcomm Technologies executive vice president Cristiano Amon said.
New 5G technologies are making spectrum bands above 24GHz, known as mmWave, available for mobile broadband communications for the first time.
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