10Deployment
10.1 Overview
The 5G system (5GS) has raised a big interest in the telecommunications industry, and it can be expected that the markets will be deploying early-stage 5G well before the actual ITU‐R IMT‐2020 candidate technologies have been presented and formally approved.
These early deployments represent still pre‐5G era as the International Telecommunications Union (ITU's) point of view is considered. Nevertheless, Release 15 being the first 3GPP version, and preliminary candidate for the IMT‐2020 process, it is a matter of markets to decide how the 5G deployments are called in practice. Based on the strictest interpretations, only Release 16 may fully comply with the ITU requirements and thus the earliest possible timing for such respective and complete 5G networks can be seen as of the year 2020.
10.2 Trials and Early Adopters Prior to 2020
10.2.1 Verizon Wireless
Verizon has been active in 5G network trialing with mobile equipment and network infrastructure providers and has produced a set of 5G system specifications for testing the 5G performance. The focus of these trials has been on a subset of New Radio (NR), such as Fixed Wireless Access without mobility support. During this time, the user devices have been limited to Consumer Premise Equipment, such as set‐top boxes. The main aim of this activity has been to provide more efficient last mile wireless connectivity, and to collect experiences on the expected performance of the final 5G.
The Verizon 5GTF ...