Verizon hopes to set 5G agenda with latest milestone - CNET

The reality of 5G, wireless connectivity that's faster than our speediest home inteet service, is years away. But that isn't stopping Verizon from making its presence felt now.

The nation's largest wireless carrier on Monday said it had worked out the radio specifications for its 5G deployment with its vendor partners, providing a common blueprint for everyone regarding the network infrastructure, processors and devices.

Setting the specifications not only speeds the process for its own vendors, but may influence the inteational community when players around the world finally begin hammering out a global standard, expected in 2020. By moving quickly now, Verizon hopes to set the agenda for how those standards look, a similar strategy it took with its 4G LTE deployment.

"The level of collaboration that we're seeing exceeds what we saw during 4G," said Adam Koeppe, vice president of network technology planning.

Verizon said it was working on making sure its 5G specification lined up with KT Corp., a Korean carrier interested in making a quick leap into the new technology in time for the 2018 Olympics, held in Pyeongchang, South Korea.