In late 2020, equipment and devices will start to come to market supporting Release 16 standards for 5G, which should be finalized early in the year. These will be important in moving the platform forward from mobile broadband and ‘4G-plus’ to genuinely new capabilities, including low latency, massive device density and shared spectrum support. But 5G will be a long journey, and the 3GPP is already working on Release 17, due to be finalized in the second half of 2021. Last week, at the latest quarterly 3GPP RAN group plenary meeting in Spain, the key elements of R17 were agreed. A package of 24 projects have been approved and work will start early in the new year. Release 17 will…