Wireless 5G networks will be deployed in 2019

Rajeev Suri, president and CEO of Nokia, said Nokia expects 5G networks to be deployed in 2019, with widespread trials next year.

5G technology will enable carriers to provide solutions to a greater number of use cases. He said a lot of the work that has been done to date with pre-standards trials of 5G “were really to gain a lot of insights that helped us feed right back into the standards work.”

He added that standardization and openness would be critical to creating the healthy ecosystem that is required to enable 5G to flourish.

The wireless industry prepared to spend an estimated $275 billion to deploy 5G.

The first mass-market 5G smartphones will become commercially available by 2019, according to Qualcomm CEO Steven Mollenkopf, due to increasing demands from the consumer and business segments driving an acceleration of the previous 2020 timeline.

There are already several network operators in the United States, Japan, and South Korea that are preparing for a 5G launch in 2019, and that they would likely be joined by Chinese carriers.