German operator Deutsche Telekom is launching an innovation laboratory, which it calls "5G:haus," in order to team up with research organizations, startups and tried-and-true vendors as it works on the development and standardization of 5G technology.
"The 5G:haus will allow us, in cooperation with leading partners, to develop the architecture, to foster innovation and to steer standardization work," said Bruno Jacobfeuerborn, DT's CTO and board chairman of the NGMN (Next Generation Mobile Networks) Alliance, in a press release. "The lab will also provide a platform to engage with our customers at a very early stage of 5G development."
DT says it will work within its innovation laboratory with a broad range of partners including research companies, startups and established network infrastructure equipment vendors. The company will use its European footprint to build up the lab and plans to showcase it in different locations across Europe.
Some of Deutsche Telekom's partners include SoftRAN Initiative at Stanford University, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence - DFKI, University of Kaiserslautern and Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft (Fraunhofer FOKUS and Fraunhofer HHI), as well as startups like RF DSP, Kumu Networks and Moogsoft.
Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC), Nokia (NYSE:NOK), Samsung, ZTE, Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) and Huawei are also involved.
At Mobile World Congress 2015 in Barcelona, the NGMN Alliance announced the publication of the 5G White Paper, which represents the view of the 24 operator members.
"The publication was an important first step in the overall 5G development process. The industry must now work together to deliver a global communications standard and related products that allow first commercial deployments by 2020," Jacobfeuerborn said in the release.
At MWC, Jacobfeuerborn noted that 5G will be a global standard, and one that covers integrated networks rather than being a pure mobile play. A worldwide standard for homogeneous communication will be created for 5G because communication has no local borders, he said. DT says its direct engagement with the industry--enabled by the new innovation laboratory--will make uniform standards possible.
For more:
- see this ZDNet article
- telecompaper has this article (sub. req.)
- see the press release
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