THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION has signed what it calls a ‘landmark agreement’ with South Korea to help develop 5G mobile technologies.
The agreement, which was signed in Seoul today, will see both sites cooperating in research into both 5G and Information Communications Technology (ICT) as well as launching a jointly funded Research and Development (R&D) program in 2016-2017.
The partnership will see both sides look towards developing a target timetable for 5G by the end of 2015 as well as providing a definition and outlining its key functionalities. It will also look at the possibility of using radio frequency band to meet the additional spectrum requirements for 5G.
An agreement will also be signed between the EU’s 5G Infrastructure Association, which includes telecom carriers and companies like Nokia, Orange, Ericsson, and Huawei, and South Korea’s 5G forum.
Trials have been taking place in Asia with companies in South Korea and Japan testing out the technology in the past year.
For Japan, one of its network carrier DOCOMO plans to test a wide range of 5G mobile technologies before it’s released commercially. Indoor trails are expected to begin at its R&D centre later this year with outdoor field trials planned for next year.
5G technology is a next-generation cellular system which is said to provide speeds that are several hundred times faster than existing 4G networks. It’s expected that the first networks will be released commercially in 2020.
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