The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has defined the fifth generation networks (5G) and decided to commercialize that technology by the year 2020.
ITU-R Working Party 5D of the UN’s telco arm finalized its 5G vision and rubber-stamped it as IMT-2020 at a meeting in San Diego, California last week, Total Telecom reported.
The union defined 5G as the network capable of speeds up to 20gbps (gigabits per second), and said the first demonstration of the new technology will come in 2018.
The 5G network will also have a capacity to provide more than 100 megabits-per-second average data transmission to over one million Internet of Things devices within one square kilometer. Video content services, including ones that use holography technology, will also be available thanks to the expanded data transmit capacity, the ministry said.
The ITU has determined the name of the 5G network as IMT-2020, following the IMT-2000 for the third-generation network and the IMT-Advanced for the fourth-generation one.
In a statement on Friday, the ITU said the next step is to establish detailed technical performance requirements for the radio systems to support 5G, taking into account a wide portfolio of future scenarios and use cases.
"The buzz in the industry on future steps in mobile technology -- 5G -- has seen a sharp increase, with attention now focused on enabling a seamlessly connected society in the 2020 timeframe and beyond that brings together people along with things, data, applications, transport systems and cities in a smart networked communications environment", said ITU secretary general Houlin Zhao.
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