Infrastructure Giants Lead 5G Standardization

Even though there are more than 600 member companies in 3GPP, the 5G standardization process is actually led by a few leading players, according to Strategy Analytics. Their report assesses the 13 leading companies’ contributions to 3GPP 5G standards for the period of Releases 15 and 16 so far. The results indicate that the top 5 companies in 3GPP 5G standards activities are Huawei , Ericsson, Nokia, Qualcomm and China Mobile.

“3GPP plays the central role in the ecosystem of global 5G standardization. By analyzing the contributions of industry players to 3GPP 5G standards, we can get an idea of different companies’ positions in 5G innovation as well as their influence in the global mobile industry. So we looked at 3GPP organization and work procedures to assess each company’s influence from multiple aspects,“ noted Guang Yang, Director at Strategy Analytics.

According to their assessment, leading infrastructure vendors, Huawei , Ericsson and Nokia, made more significant contributions to 5G standards than other studied companies. Huawei leads in terms of overall contributions to the end-to-end 5G standards, while Ericsson leads in TSG/WG chairmanship and Nokia in approved/agreed ratio of 5G contribution papers.

“It is important to remember that the true nature of the standardization process is actually one of industry collaboration rather than competition. 3GPP standardization continues to be a dynamic process. It is expected that emerging players and new market requirements will increasingly impact priorities for 3GPP Release17 standards,“ said Phil Kendall , Executive Director at Strategy Analytics.