NEW YORK�Verizon Wireless said that it plans to demonstrate 5G technology at its headquarters in 2016, and now AT&T has now said it plans to test 5G technologies in Austin, Texas.� AT&T has asked the Federal Communications Commission for an experimental license to trial technologies in the 3.4 GHz-3.6 GHz, 3.7 GHz-4.2 GHz, 14.5 GHz-15.35 GHz and 27.5 GHz-28.5 GHz bands, according torcrwireless.com.
The IMT-2020 standardshave not been finalized (and are unlikely to be set in concrete until the end of this decade) and the bands IMT-2020 will use have not been determined. For this reason AT&T is asking to test a wide range of options. The goal is clearly to see which work and which ones do not for given applications. �
(Editors note:The International Telecommunications Union Focus Group on network aspects of IMT-2020 was established in May 2015 to analyze how emerging 5G technologies will interact in future networks as a preliminary study into the networking innovations required to support the development of 5G systems.)
AT&T and Verizon are testing new technologies that have not been standardized yet to make sure they have a �seat at the table� and to ensure their needs are met by the IMT-2020 standards. �The standards bodies are also likely to use the results of AT&T�s and Verizon�s tests and trials in their decision making. And since both operators will have a front-row seat on how 5G is specified and deployed, they are likely to be first-to-market with IMT-2020,� according to the same article.
