3GPP Release 20

I've done a couple of looking back a bit into the past posts recently so it's time again to look a bit into the future. Today we are at 3GPP Release 10 in standardization and when I look back to Release 99 or even further, we've come a long way. So, will I or 3GPP still be around for 3GPP Release 20? With a release cycle of about 18 months, that should be in 15 years from now. I wonder how wireless networks will look then!? Will there be a similar difference compared to Release 10 to GSM Release 97? That's difficult to imagine. But then, who back then working on Release 97 could have imagined HSPA+ or LTE?

Comments

[PierreL]

To guess what 3GPP could be, just have a look to how GSM has evolved up to now.

There has been 7 versions of GSM under ETSI, and we now have up to 7 versions (from 4 to 10) of GERAN.

So... we currently are in a sort of "GSM Release 14" equivalent...

There is no doubt 3GPP/UMTS/LTE/LTE-A will reach that point, and possibly go even further. The most resilient animal to kill on Earth is a technical Working Group.