President of Huawei Middle East, Charles Yang has claimed that as we approach 2020, the growth of 5G-based enhanced mobile broadband networking applications will skyrocket. In a compelling interview, Yang offers his insights into why he believes the rise of 5G is causing such a seismic shift globally in the ICT industry, addresses the challenges in deploying the next-generation technology - and predicts what impact 5G will have in the Middle East.

Huawei recently released the world's first 3GPP R14-based commercial NB-IoT solution in eRAN13.1. This latest NB-IoT solution can provide much better performance than its predecessors.

Nokia and SFR have successfully completed a 5G call, using the 3GPP-compliant 5G New Radio (NR) system over-the-air on the 3.5GHz frequency band. The test took place at the Nokia 5G Test Network and Competence Center in Paris-Saclay, France.

Chinese vendor Huawei has partnered with Canadian telecommunications operator TELUS on an urban trial of 5G wireless-to-the-home service using customer premise equipment (CPE). It has been claimed that the innovative trial is the first of its kind in North America and among the first globally.

As technology suppliers develop the next-generation of wireless technologies, mobile operators invest in the networks of the future, and governments launch innovation programs, the early benefits of 5G will go to economies where globally aligned 5G spectrum and technology innovation is readily available.

To meet growing customer interest in 5G, Nokia is broadening its focus into multiple areas of early 5G mobility use cases, including enhanced mobile broadband and ultra-reliable, ultra-low latency communications. Nokia will push for accelerated 3GPP industry standardization while building on early customer experiences with its Nokia 5G FIRST end-to-end solution, launched in February at Mobile World Congress.

Nokia and Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, have successfully completed interoperability testing in the 3.5Ghz and 28Ghz spectrum compliant with the global 3GPP 5G NR Release 15 standard - which was formally confirmed in December - and using the commercially available Nokia AirScale base station and device prototypes from Qualcomm Technologies.

Italian operator Telecom Italia has announced that the Republic of San Marino will become the first country in Europe to have a 5G mobile network. Telecom Italia made the prediction following the disclosure of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with government officials from San Marino.

Nokia, ABB and Kalmar, part of Cargotec, announced they successfully conducted industrial trials that leverage the low latency capabilities of 5G to support time-critical applications and enhance protection and efficiency in smart electricity grid and harbor automation. The trials, conducted as part of the Wireless for Verticals (WIVE) research project, represent one of the first real-world applications of time-critical 5G applications on electricity grid and harbor automation.

US telecommunications colossus AT&T has seemingly trumped its major rivals Verizon and T-Mobile US by officially announcing that it will offer 5G services for its mobile customers in a dozen or so markets later this year.

Verizon's fixed wireless access (FWA) 5G product will go live later this fall and is set to launch in four US cities: Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, and Sacramento, the company announced live from GSMA Mobile World Congress Americas 2018. Customers living in these areas will be able to sign-up for the service from 13 September, and receive it starting 1 October.

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, and the Datang Telecom Group, also known as China Academy of Telecommunications Technology (CATT), announced the first successful multi-chipset vendor interoperability of 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Release 14 C-V2X direct communications (PC5) Mode 4, which is also referred to as LTE-V2X.