5G-Advanced: Shaping the future of operator services

Wednesday 28 Feb 2024 ｜ 5G | 5G-Advanced | Resources |

The next step in the development of cellular technologies, 5G-Advanced refers to a suite of technologies that will be introduced with Release 18 of the 3GPP standards. Release 18 is due to be finalised in June 2024, paving the way for vendors to start supplying commercial solutions to mobile network operators (MNOs) for deployment in late 2025 onwards. Following the first major wave of deployments in 2026, 5G-Advanced capabilities promise to transform every aspect of the services mobile network operators provide for their customers.

The next era of cellular technology

In the latest industry marketing paper from GSMA titled “5G-Advanced: Shaping the future of operator services”, we asked major equipment vendors; Ericsson, Huawei, Nokia, Qualcomm, ZTE, throughout a series of interviews to provide examples of how 5G-Advanced will create value for mobile operators and how 5G-Advanced will:

Enable a step-change in network capacity and flexibility, giving operators much more scope to tailor 5G connectivity to the needs of an individual enterprise or a single application.
Use new spectrum and extremely large antenna array to provide fixed wireless access (FWA) connectivity capable of bringing 10 Gbps throughput to homes and businesses.
Deliver much greater automation, AI-driven analytics and programmability, enabling enterprises to track and monitor the enormous variety of assets used in different industry sectors.
Coordinate artificial intelligence (AI) in the network, the device and the cloud/edge to optimise the available connectivity for demanding applications, such as image recognition and conversations with automated personal assistants.
Employ integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) and reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS) equipment to provide the capacity to enable large numbers of people to enjoy reliable connectivity at major events, such as the Asian Games and the Olympics.

Download the full report to read on.