Qualcomm aims to roll out the world's first 5G SoC solution in 2018-2019 as 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) is expected to finalize 5G technology standards sometime in 2018, according to company engineering vice president Durga Prasad Malladi.

Although many countries have been actively developing their own 5G technology, the 5G standards developed by 3GPP are likely to become common standards worldwide as most telecom operators will use 3GPP as the basis for the development of 5G networks, Malladi said on the sidelines of Mobile World Congress Shanghai.

For the development of 5G SoC solutions at Qualcomm, the company will not only follow closely the progress of technology standards at 3GPP, but will also take into account the need to support the development of 5G technology in different regions and countries, Malladi added.

Qualcomm's recently announced its 5G New Radio (NR) prototype system and trial platform is designed to closely link to 3GPP technical standards and offer the industry a set of specifications for interoperability testing, Malladi said.

The 5G NR prototype system operates in the sub-6GHz spectrum bands and is being utilized to showcase Qualcomm's innovative 5G designs to efficiently achieve multi-gigabit per second data rates and low latency, according to company data.

The prototype system will closely track 3GPP progress to help achieve timely 5G NR trials with mobile operators, infrastructure vendors, and other industry players, as well as future 5G NR commercial network launches. The new prototype adds to Qualcomm's existing 5GmmWave prototype system, operating at 28GHz and capable of robust mobile broadband communications in non-line-of-sight environment, utilizing advanced beamforming and beam-steering techniques.