Would you believe it, Nokia is expanding its 5G portfolio

Nokia has announced it will be broadening its portfolio for early 5G mobility use cases after seemingly figuring out people might actually like it.

The announcement itself has been worded in such a way that it sounds like the Finn’s are actually shocked by the news. After identifying a ‘clear interest for 5G mobility applications’ from operators, Nokia has put forward the high-flying ambitions of making more 5G products. I don’t know about you, but you correspondent was shocked to hear the industry was looking forward to the development of such a technology. Shocked I tell you.

“There should be no doubt about the huge potential of 5G,” Nokia’s President of Mobile Networks, Marc Rouanne proudly proclaimed, in what we can only imagine was said with the same euphoria as someone figuring out the meaning of life.

“Through 5G First, Nokia is evolving its 5G strategy to drive the industry rapidly towards the adoption of standards-based commercial applications – as early as 2019. Doing so will require broad cross-industry support, and we call upon regulators and governments to free up and enable the use of spectrum at low-, mid- and high-frequency bands for trials. This will allow robust evaluation of 5G to take place, so that collectively, we can deliver one of the most important new technologies in history, one that will truly drive the Fourth Industrial Revolution.”

The focus look more specifically at mobility use cases around enhanced mobile broadband and ultra-reliable, ultra-low latency communications. The team will also push an accelerated 3GPP industry standardization, while also implementing early 5G specifications, to ‘enhance’ 5G First with the 3GPP 5G Phase I protocol.

Research and development will focus on the following areas:

So for those who think that Huawei is running away with the industry, don’t worry, Nokia has figured out there might be some legs to this 5G thing after all. Game on.