What?...... didn't I just see a 5G phone?
5G (
5th generation mobile networks or
5th generation wireless systems) is a name used in some research papers and projects to denote the next major phase of mobile telecommunications standards beyond the
4G/
IMT-Advanced standards effective since 2011. At present, 5G is not a term officially used for any particular specification or in any official document yet made public by telecommunication standardization bodies such as
3GPP,
WiMAX Forum, or
ITU-R. New standard releases beyond 4G are in progress by standardization bodies, but are at this time not considered as new mobile generations but under the 4G umbrella.
Were a 5G family of ITU standards to be implemented, it would likely be around the year 2020, according to some sources.[SUP]
[1][/SUP] A new mobile generation has appeared every 10th year since the first
1G system (
NMT) was introduced in 1981, including the 2G (
GSM) system that started to roll out in 1992, 3G (
W-CDMA/
FOMA), which appeared in 2001, and "real" 4G standards
LTE-Advanced and
WiMAX 2.0 fulfilling the
IMT-Advanced requirements, that were ratified in 2011 and products and services existing since 2012[SUP][
citation needed][/SUP]. Predecessor technologies have occurred on the market a few years before the new mobile generation, for example the pre-3G system
CdmaOne/IS95 in 1995, and the pre-4G systems
Mobile WiMAX and first release-
LTE in 2005 and 2009 respectively.
