Big Phone Companies Will Test 5G This Year

(RTTNews) - T-Mobile has announced its plans to start testing 5G cellular technology this year itself, like its rivals AT&T and Verizon.

Few days ago, AT&T also announced its plans to field-test 5G network in Austin, Texas, before end of this year, as the telecom giant tries to catch up with Verizon.

Last year, Verizon, the largest wireless carrier in the US, announced that it will become the first provider to launch 5G technology in the country. Verizon said it will begin field testing 5G wireless technology in 2016, with an aim to start commercially providing the technology by 2017, much earlier than the 2020 time-frame targeted by the industry.

Verizon was the first carrier to provide 4G LTE in the US, when it launched the technology five years ago.

On an interview to tech blog Re/Code, T-Mobile Chief Technology Officer Nevile Ray said that all this 5G talk from the major carriers, especially Verizon, is largely a smokescreen to hide the fact that T-Mobile has caught up with them on 4G.

"They are trying to change the story," Ray told Re/code in an interview Wednesday. "Nothing they are doing is proprietary or unique."

Meanwhile, AT& said it is working with Ericsson and Intel and will begin testing 5G in a lab this spring before testing it outdoors later in 2016.