Research Overview

The first generation of wireless communication technology (1G) was introduced when NTT launched the first commercial cellular network in Tokyo in 1979. Successive generations have followed approximately every 10 years. Analog voice was the primary 1G service; 2G brought digital voice and introduced data services with text messages. Internet access accompanied 3G and became much faster with the introduction of 4G in 2009. Since then, 4G has continually evolved, starting with 4G Long-Term Evolution (LTE) and progressing on to 4G LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) and 4G LTE-A Pro.

Now, the 5G era is here. 5G is designed to use the radio frequency spectrum differently and more efficiently; for this reason, 5G is referred to as 5G New Radio (NR). 5G is rolling out globally but will take many years to reach the ubiquity of 4G. The possibilities presented by any 5G use case require that 5G is available and at a level that the use case requires. In other words, 5G use cases presented in this report may not yet be possible, depending on the location and/or current state of standards.

This report examines the building blocks of the fifth generation of wireless technology (5G): the use cases driving the standards that enable and define what 5G is capable of. When one thinks of mobile and wireless, the tendency is to focus on the consumer market; however, many 5G use cases serve the enterprise market and various industry verticals. 5G will impact the consumer market, but the biggest growth opportunities for communications service providers (CSPs) and their suppliers will be in helping a wide variety of industries utilize 5G to accomplish connectivity-based operations and processes never before possible. To understand these opportunities, it is necessary to first understand where the mobile and wireless industry has been, where it is now, and where it is going.