The 5G tech standards group confirmed it will delay work on two specification releases by three months as 5G’s progress is hard hit by the pandemic.
The freezing stage of Release 16 will now be moved out to June 2020 so that people can continue to contribute in the meantime, but the ASN.1 and OpenAPI specification freeze will start in June as planned.
Also shifting back three months, Release 17’s Stage 3 freeze will now take place in September 2021 and its ASN.1 and OpenAPI specification freeze will be in December 2021.
5G on ice?
When a specification is frozen, only essential corrections for errors can be made – no further function additions or modifications are permitted. ASN.1 is a formal notation used for describing data transmitted by telecommunications protocols.
Release 16 covers “phase 2” of the 5G system, industrial IoT, ultra-reliable and low-latency communication enhancements (URLLC) and more. Release 17 will address “more 5G system enhancements”.
In February, 3GPP announced face-to-face meetings would be cancelled for Q1 due to coronavirus. It recently provided an update that meetings as far out as June will now be held remotely.
According to an intelligence report published by the GSMA about the impact of Covid-19 on the industry, “5G will be the hardest hit [sector in mobile]. Consumers are not going to stop using mobile phones, but most will not be in a position to spend more on a service which is still very much seen as a nice to have.
“With ARPU already stagnating, [mobile network operators] will struggle to generate the revenue streams required for a major technology build out.”