Ericsson, Huawei and others are pushing for 5G via METIS 2020

"5G" is not yet real in any sense of the word because it's not a standard yet. It is, however a marketing term being tossed around by various vendors and operators. Having fallen behind North America and Asia in the race to develop and deploy LTE networks, Europe is determined to lead the development of the next generation of wireless services. The European Commission has committed €50 million ($69 million) in research grants to develop "5G" technology by 2020. Nearly one-third of that total has gone to the METIS 2020 research project, with METIS standing for "Mobile and wireless communications Enablers for the Twenty-twenty (2020) Information Society." Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) is spearheading the METIS project but the consortium partners span telecommunications manufacturers, network operators, the automotive industry and academia. In addition to Ericsson, top infrastructure vendors that are involved include Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE:ALU), Nokia (NYSE:NOK) Solutions and Networks and Huawei. For more on the push to 5G, check out this FierceWireless:Tech special report.