Samsung wants to be the 5G daddy

Desperate to move the conversation away from incendiary devices, Samsung hosted the first Silicon Valley 5G Summit this week.

The stated purpose of this event was “…to lay the foundation for an open end-to-end ecosystem for fifth generation (5G) networks.” We must assume Samsung is already aware of the countless initiatives already in place to move 5G along, so what’s different about this one?

Commercialization, as opposed to implementation, was the name of the game at Samsung Research America in San Jose, USA. It’s all very well banging on about massive MIMO and beamforming but unless you can turn all that cleverness into cold cash what’s the point? Over 100 companies representing a wide cross-section of vendors, operators, investors and analysts call got together to say ‘show me the money!’

“We believe it is time to come together and shape the new era of 5G and, to that goal, it is critical to build a sustainable ecosystem by inviting all industry stakeholders to share their perspectives on how 5G will develop over the next few years,” said Paul Kyungwhoon Cheun, Head of the Next Generation Communications Business Team at Samsung Electronics. “The collective intelligence we have seen today is the result of interaction between various industry segments, and I am confident that this will act as a catalyst in transforming 5G from vision to reality.”

Analyst firm Ovum was there too, having been asked by Samsung to contribute a white paper on 5G fixed wireless access. “Looking at the current pace of the market, 5G Fixed Wireless Access commercial services could be available in a few years’ time,” said Daryl Schoolar, Principal Analyst at Ovum. “For 5G Fixed Wireless Access to be successful, it will need a robust ecosystem in order to drive innovation, keep prices down, and ensure a strong multivendor environment.”

As ever with gatherings such as this everyone probably commented ‘I thought that went well’ before retiring to the nearest San Jose watering hole. Whether or not anything was actually achieved is another matter, but Samsung was keen enough for everyone to know how proactive its being nonetheless.