Qualcomm revealed the 3GPP will approve the first iteration of highly anticipated 5G New Radio (NR) specifications on Wednesday (20 December).

Lorenzo Casaccia, Qualcomm’s VP of technical standards and the company’s lead for 3GPP technology standards, revealed the day in a Twitter post: the first official date placed on the release of the specification after the standards body in March said it was accelerating the approval process.

The 3GPP will make the announcement during a meeting taking place in Lisbon this week.

Matt Branda, Qualcomm’s director of technical marketing, confirmed Casaccia’s statement, telling Mobile World Live the forthcoming specification will include a fully implementable non-standalone (NSA) standard, along with Layer 1 and Layer 2 specifications for standalone (SA) 5G which will be finalised in 2018.

The NSA setup allows operators to add a new 5G channel on top of their existing LTE radio and core networks. Operators including AT&T and Verizon have said they plan to use NSA specifications for 3GPP-compliant 5G deployments by end-2018.

Dean Brenner, a fellow Qualcomm executive in charge of spectrum strategy and technology policy, enthused in a separate post this will be a “really big week for 5G,” adding the specification’s release is a “gigantic” first step toward next generation technology.

3GPP in September postponed work on some NR elements to ensure the NSA deadline was met.

What’s included
The NSA specification reportedly covers spectrum bands up to around 50GHz, including sub-1GHz, 2.5GHz and 3.5GHz bands, and mmWave frequencies in 28GHz and 39GHz. Branda explained the specification allows for bandwidths of up to 400MHz, but noted channel sizes will depend on the spectrum used.

In the 2.5GHz and 3.5GHz bands, for instance, a 100MHz channel size was most commonly discussed, Branda said. Operators using mmWave can use multiple 100MHz channels or opt for a single channel of up to 400MHz. Channel sizes in sub-1GHz spectrum “can look very much like LTE” at 20MHz or below, he added.