Speaking to analysts and journalists Qualcomm’s President, Cristiano Amon, laid out the company's ambitious plans for 5G and said that he was confident that it would become a reality in 2019.
To back up his claim he, together with Thomas Noren, who is Head of 5G Commercialisation at Ericsson, were able, in a world first, to demonstrate video running over a 5G network on a mobile device.
Behind the 'whoops' that accompanied the demonstration Qualcomm and the eco-system behind 5G have certainly been putting in the man hours to develop handsets and the infrastructure to support the latest 'G'
According to Amon, “5G is in the line of sight of operators and OEMs around the world, and we’re going to see some big changes next year. We’ve made some real progress as an industry.”
Network infrastructure is being upgraded and handsets are being tested for release next year by all the leading handset manufacturers, according to Amon, and plenty of companies at the event were in agreement.
In an upbeat assessment of where the industry is with 5G, Amon said that with the roll out of Sub 6 and mmWave going global, consumers and businesses could expect to see 5G capable phones on the market next year.
If handsets do start to appear in the numbers predicted, that can only help to build confidence and encourage operators to develop data plans to incentivise more people to start using new services.
If Amon’s optimistic tone is mirrored across the sector and the underlying technologies that will make it a reality are in place, then next year 5G could become a commercial reality and we may be setting out on the road to a revolution in connectivity.
