Globe Telecom says all the 5G talk is just a marketing hype.

Smart says the Philippines has gone 5G when the telco fired up its LTE-Advanced network in August 2014. Globe Telecom says all the 5G talk is just a marketing hype.

It seems that shots were fired on the sidelines of Globe’s demo of LTE-CA [Carrier Aggregation] and LTE eMBMS [enhanced Multimedia Broadcast and Multicast Service] technologies.

“5G per se has not been defined,” said Globe head of network technologies strategy Emmanuel Lazaro Estrada. “How can you say that it’s already here?”

He shared with us some of the technical papers that were presented during the European Technical Standards Institute’s Future Mobile Summit in November 2013.

ETSI is a nonprofit organization responsible for standardizing information and communications technology in Europe.

One slide shows the cellular-standards evolution.

Cellular-standards evolution

Estrada said, “Note the 5G timing with regard to the standards development only at around 2020 and large-scale deployments by 2041—yup, that far away—with LTE-Advanced continuing adoption till 2031.”

“LTE-Advanced today is the real 4G, where we are able to deliver speeds of up to 100Mbps and even up to 500Mbps,” he added.

Recall that 4G became commercially available in the Philippines in August 2012.

When asked for comment, Smart and PLDT public affairs head Ramon Isberto, through his staff, sent us this statement:

“What we are rolling out in our network is LTE-Advanced which has been referred to other markets such as the U.S. as 5G. LTE-A is capable of much higher data speeds than LTE and will address requirements for higher data throughputs. As for the extent of our LTE rollout, we are deploying LTE as part of a suite of services. The PLDT Group's approach is to use different technology platforms to address different needs. That is why we are deploying fixed technologies like fiber to homes and buildings, fixed LTE services, and DSL alongside mobile broadband running on 3G/HSPA and mobile LTE and LTE-A.”

Source: Yahoo.com.PH