$5 billion will have been invested into 5G research by 2020

Report : The 5G Wireless Ecosystem: 2015 - 2025

A new report on the 5G wireless ecosystem has been released, covering a wide range of topics, from 5G requirements, to spectrum options, complimentary technologies to 5G, antenna technologies and more. It looks at 5G development now, through to where it’s likely to be by 2025.

Among the key findings of the report are estimates that by 2020 5G research and development and trial investments will account for nearly $5 billion, following a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 40% over the next five years.

Of course with 5G likely to be launching commercially in or around 2020 a large investment will be essential, as it’s nowhere near ready as yet.

These investments are set to be driven by regional, national, government, wireless network and vendor initiatives, with almost 70% of them likely to target large scale commercial trial networks in Japan, South Korea and other early pioneering countries.

There’s not yet any standardisation in 5G networks, with that being one of the main things that needs to be figured out before a commercial launch. The report looks at that too, stating that standardisation activities are expected to commence between 2015 and 2016.

But despite 5G being at such an early stage the report also finds that vendors are aggressively investing in 5G development efforts.

The main focus of those investments right now is new transmission schemes, new antenna technologies and experimenting with the use of higher frequency bands.

These high-frequency bands are likely to be vital to 5G, as there is so much more bandwidth available in them, but 5G will likely use both high frequency millimetre-wave bands and established bands which are already in use.

The new report can be viewed here.