During Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, at Global 5G Test Summit, AT&T, China Mobile, NTT DOCOMO, Vodafone, Ericsson, Huawei, Intel, Keysight, MediaTek, Nokia, Qualcomm, Rohde & Schwarz, ZTE and Datang has jointly declared a statement promoting unified, global 5G standards achieved through 5G testing, trials and cooperation between telecom operators, vendors and vertical industry partners to build a unified end-to-end (E2E) ecosystem.

At the Global 5G Test Summit, hosted by four leading telecom operators and supported by ITU, GSMA, 3GPP, NGMN and GTI, all participants declared their commitment to the promotion of unified global 5G standards, a unified E2E ecosystem and a thriving 5G market. After standardization, testing and trials are vital to the success of 5G technologies, ecosystem development and cross-industry innovation. To achieve this goal, all participants committed to facilitating and ensuring a unified, high-quality and competitive 3GPP 5G specification by June 2018 for release 15 and December 2019 for release 16, building a unified 5G E2E ecosystem (including chipset, terminal, network, test instrument, etc.) for seamless global roaming, and enlarging the global market scale for low cost.

Participants are starting the early trial and interoperability testing for a variety of use cases, including mobile broadband, for 3GPP Release 15 specifications to drive a mature 5G ecosystem and to ensure a quick and efficient time to market. They also appealed to inspire innovations on 5G key technology and to validate the smooth evolution capability of technologies towards 5G, including 3D-MIMO LTE, NB-IoT/eMTC, and C-V2X.

“To achieve the large-scale commercialization of 5G in 2020, China Mobile will strengthen cooperation with global industry partners to facilitate a unified and high-quality 3GPP 5G specification, accelerate the maturity of 5G industry through testing and trials, and explore new services, applications and business models with vertical industry partners for a unified 5G ecosystem through China Mobile 5G Innovation Center,” said Liu Aili, EVP of China Mobile.

        

“A unified standard is vital to the realization of 5G E2E ecosystem. We believe this statement will promote the finalization of 3GPP release 15 specifications surely and timely, and facilitate early implementation of standard-compliant 5G. DOCOMO is planning to commence 5G system trial in Japan in the middle of this year, working together with partners in various industries not limited to telecom.  We take the past experience from former generations as guides for the future, and are confident that we achieve the highly-stable 5G standard through 5G Trial and IOT,” said Seizo Onoe, CTO and EVP at NTT DOCOMO.

“Through advanced testing and trials, we’re addressing key standards issues early in order to accelerate standards and provide the fastest path to large-scale, global 5G deployment. We’re collaborating closely with leaders across our industry on 5G. Pre-standard, fragmented 5G specifications can distract from the end-goal and cause future roadblocks. It’s critical that we’re all unified and aligned on this technology,” said Tom Keathley, senior vice president- wireless network architecture and design, AT&T.

“The alignment of the industry behind a common global standard is important for the evolution of 5G and the cost efficient roll-out of the technology globally. We look forward to working across the industry to establish a thriving 5G ecosystem,” said Matt Beal, Director of Technology, Architecture and Strategy at Vodafone.

“The Internet of Everything requires a new level of network capabilities. 5G will be built not only for consumers, who need a seamless experience with their devices, but also for the digitalization of entire industries and society. 5G development can only become a reality in partnership with customers and partners, which makes this initiative so significant,” said Magnus Ewerbring, CTO, Ericsson Region Asia Pacific.

"In addition to greatly enhance the consumer experience, 5G will become the industry digital enabler, which must be able to adapt to more application scenarios, such as low latency, massive connections and more throughput to ensure stronger vitality and longer lifecycle. Huawei will keep an open and innovative attitude with all industry chain partners to promote 5G test, inspire 5G key technology innovation, explore 5G new applications and build 5G unified ecosystem," said Yang Chaobin, President of Huawei's 5G Product Line.

“With Intel’s end-to-end solutions in network, cloud and devices, we are working with global industry leaders to define the standards across all of the key technology areas that will bring 5G to life.  We believe having a unified standard across the global  ecosystems is critical to  driving the 5G transformation that will connect the billions of smart things and revolutionize how we experience the world,” said Asha Keddy, vice president and general manager of Next Generation and Standards, the Intel Communications and Devices Group.

“The 5G ecosystem is accelerating the underlying technologies at an unprecedented pace. We are fully committed to support the industry by contributing to the 5G standardization and collaborating with all the leading companies to ensure a successful deployment of the technology. A unified global standard will help to reduce costs, expedite deployments and commercial adoption,” said Satish Dhanasekaran, VP and GM at Keysight Technologies.

 “It takes collaborative efforts from all ecosystem members to bring a new service like 5G into reality in a timely manner. As a major baseband processor provider, we are committed to supporting a unified global 5G standard," said Kevin Jou, Senior Corporate Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of MediaTek.

“Standards are the foundation of new technologies, and it is Nokia’s firm belief that the implementation of robust standards will be pivotal to the long-term success of 5G, and all the new business opportunities that it will create,” said Hossein Moiin, Chief Technology Officer of the Mobile Networks business group at Nokia.

“It is important that, as an industry, we work together towards a global 5G standard to ensure timely interoperability trials and commercial deployments. Qualcomm Technologies is dedicated to close cooperation with all of the companies participating in the Global 5G Test Summit as well as those contributing to 3GPP, and look forward to what we can achieve together,” said Durga Malladi, SVP of Qualcomm.

"With leading position in 4G, Rohde & Schwarz will continue to provide innovative solutions for 5G standard, to support our customer success in the market." said Lifang Kirchgessner, VP of global wireless communication segment, Rohde & Schwarz.

“The unified global 5G standard platform we are promoting today is of great significance. As the leading telecom products and solutions provider, ZTE takes 5G as our core strategy and invests over 200 million Euro in 5G R&D every year. Now we have completed 5G low frequency and high frequency solutions, ZTE will continue to provide innovative solution. We together with operators and insustry partners are willing to form a more flourishing and promising 5G industry,” said Zhang Jianguo, SVP of ZTE.

“5G will serve for very diverse applications and use cases, but a unified standard and cooperative industry is essential for the success 5G. Datang keeps doing innovation to speed up the unified standard and will support the 5G trial. We are glad to be one of the partners and do our contributions,” said Chen Shanzhi, VP of Datang Telecom Group.

The statement also encourages and welcomes partners from vertical industries to participate in the testing and trials for innovative 5G services and to jointly create new value for our entire global society.