Mobile World Congress 2017: 5 Major 5G Announcements

The Buzz Around 5G

5G was one of the stars of the show at this year's Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, even though the standard technically doesn’t exist yet. The official fifth-generation network standard isn't expected to be finalized until the 2019 timeframe, but that hasn't stopped wireless providers and IT vendors from getting in early on the action with pre-commercialized product sets and planned 5G customer trials.

With so many vendors at MWC with 5G on the brain, here's a sampling of five 5G-related announcements that came out of the show.

Cisco Supplies 5G Technology To Verizon's Upcoming Trials

Cisco announced that it will be arming Verizon with the 5G architecture that the carrier needs for its pre-commercial mobile network trials during MWC 2017.

As per the partnership, Cisco will be providing its cloud-based 5G packet core as part of its Cisco Ultra Service Platform, mobile backhaul infrastructure that can enable gigabit speeds for network transport, virtualized managed services, a new set of business applications, and a "pre-release" version of its 5G-enabled router.

Earlier in February, Verizon revealed plans to trial 5G services in 11 new U.S. cities in 2017.

Samsung Shows Off 5G Product Portfolio

Samsung touted a new portfolio of pre-commercial 5G mobile network products in Barcelona this week.

The new products, which will be available later this year, included a 5G router for consumers, and a compact 5G radio base station that's designed for deployment in dense areas, the company said. Also showcased was Samsung's Next-Generation Core Network infrastructure which can be used to manage and direct 5G network traffic.

Samsung has partnered with Verizon for 5G. Samsung's new home router for Verizon's 5G service was on display at MWC this year.

LG, Qualcomm To Test 5G In Cars

LG Electronics and Qualcomm took to MWC to announce a joint effort to bring 5G to automobiles. The two companies will test 5G and Cellular-V2X (C-V2X) communications within vehicles. LG is currently developing automotive connectivity solutions using Qualcomm's connected car platform, according to the company.

The two companies expect to conduct trials during the first half of 2018.

Ericsson, Qualcomm Announce Upcoming 5G Trials

Ericcson has also teamed up with Qualcomm Technologies to conduct 5G New Radio trials over Vodafone and NTT DoCoMo's mobile networks.

Ericcson announced the new partnership at MWC and said that the trails will help speed the commercialization of 5G technology. The trials, which will take place in the UK with Vodafone and in Japan with NTT DoCoMo, are slated to take place during the first half of 2018.

The two companies added they also plan to conduct 5G trials over Telstra's network in Australia during the second half of 2017.

Nokia, Spirent Unveil 5G Testing Platform

Nokia and Spirent Communications, a telecommunications testing provider, announced 5G Lab as a Service (LaaS), a platform for testing 5G automation technology.

The two companies said that the 5G LaaS will accelerate Nokia’s releases of virtual network functions and physical infrastructure. 5G LaaS has a self-service portal that supports thousands of devices and 5G and legacy network connections that engineers can use to spin up new 5G test beds.

Nokia has been busy in the 5G space. The company also announced two joint 5G testing facilities in the U.S. and Finland in partnership with Intel earlier in February.