Ulf Ewaldsson (pictured), Ericsson’s CTO, admitted to Mobile World Live that there was a risk of exaggerating what 5G can achieve, after the vendor this week demonstrated a pre-standard version of the technology.

Ericsson showed live, over-the-air 5G running at speeds of 5Gb/s, in a demonstration watched by senior managers from NTT Docomo and SK Telecom.

Asked whether there is a risk of overhyping 5G, Ewaldsson responded: “There always is, I think. If we go back through all the Gs apart from the first one. This hype of new Gs that came with digital and 2G then broadband with 3G and real, true broadband access with 4G, I think there has been a risk of exaggerating what the technologies can do”.

The company was showing the 5 Gb/s demonstration despite implementation of 5G not being expected until 2020.

But Ewaldsson suggested the technology can deliver on expectations with speeds exceeding those on fixed networks..

“We need to push the envelope strongly to make sure we have something advanced enough if we are talking about 2020, and that’s why we demonstrated what we are doing with operators,” he said.