Virtualisation is the latest area the Small Cells Forum has turned its attention to, as its Chair said that telcos' should not be blamed for fragmentation in the move to reach 5G. 

The Wi-Fi Alliance has begun certifying WiGig products as it looks to show that Wi-Fi technology can also offer gigabit speeds over short distances.

EE will lose the technological credibility it has built up over LTE if it fails to be first and best with 5G in the UK, its senior technical team has said.

Deutsche Telekom said today it has stolen a march on rival Vodafone by launching the first live narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) networks anywhere in the world.

Operators should use technology such as LTE-Advanced Pro, virtualisation and NB-IoT to develop the right business models for 5G, a summit has heard.

Embarking on a virtualisation project? Move slowly, embrace uncertainty, battle to attract the right staff (and expect to lose) and don't assume major savings, delegates at SDN World Congress have been told.

"It's complicated." The infamous Facebook description for hedging your bets about a relationship could well describe the state of virtualisation, according to day one of SDN World Congress.

Cellular standards are often criticised from the moment they are released, with LTE attacked for its lack of reliability and 3G for its speeds, but BT is among a growing number of telcos confident that 5G will get it right.

Spectrum allocation will be vital for the development of 5G, Qualcomm has warned, urging governments to ensure operators can buy chunks of more than 100MHz of contiguous frequency.

Nokia is hoping its own recent experiences integrating a new company will give it the edge in transforming operators' networks as they shift to the cloud.

Jean-Claude Juncker's state of the union address offered that rarity from a public figure; a mea culpa, an acceptance the European Union had got it wrong, specifically on the rollout of LTE.

Apple's Watch struggled to make itself heard amid last week's annual product showcase, with the wearable jockeying for position against two new iPhones, and guest appearances from Mario and Pokemon.

The battle for 5G has taken another twist with Ericsson vowing to deliver the first networks next year, albeit with several caveats.

TIM will deploy virtual RAN (vRAN) in Italy this year, following the July launch of “intelligent” cloud RAN based on virtualised hardware in Palermo.