5G developments have accelerated dramatically in 2006. Early initiatives by SK Telecom and KT have been followed by China Mobile, Singtel and Telstra in Asia Pacific region. Despite early reservations about 5G in US AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile have established roadmaps. In Europe - where 4G/LTE is still being rolled out - the primary interest in 5G has been on IoT, vertical and underserved markets from TIM, Vodafone, KPN, Telefonica MTS and Megafon.
As a result these different deployment schedules in different markets have created concerns over market fragmentation.
Diverse Use Cases across broadband and IOT and expected competition from non-traditional players are the main reasons behind this fragmentation.
While a unified early 5G standard is important, the ability to meet diverse market requirements in the long term is even more crucial for 5G success in future markets and services.
Strategy Analytics recommends the industry consider a standardization paradigm that gives operators higher flexibility within an overall 5G framework.