3GPP first 5G release: System architecture milestone of 5G is achieved on time
In March 2017, the industry agreed to a plan to accelerate up the 5G standardisation schedule and it was agreed to split up the specification of Release 15 (i.e. 5G) into two phases, Release 15 NSA (Non-standalone) as a priority and Release 15 Full (with standalone) scheduled for later in 2018.
On December 21st, 2017, the 3GPP TSG RAN announced it successfully completed the first implementable 5G NR specification at its Plenary Meeting in Lisbon. AT&T, BT, China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, Ericsson, Fujitsu, Huawei, Intel, KT Corporation, LG Electronics, LG Uplus, MediaTek Inc., NEC Corporation, Nokia, NTT DOCOMO, Orange, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., Samsung Electronics, SK Telecom, Sony Mobile Communications Inc., Sprint, TIM, Telefonica, Telia Company, T-Mobile USA, Verizon, Vodafone, and ZTE have made a statement that the completion of the first 5G NR standard has set the stage for the global mobile industry to start full-scale development of 5G NR for large-scale trials and commercial deployments as early as in 2019.