 I'm here in the ITUTB studio with Stephen Blust, Chairman of the ITUR Working Party 5D, to talk about the future of mobile broadband. Stephen, you're working on the next generation 5G and IMT 2020 mobile systems. What is IMT 2020? Well, IMT 2020 is the ITU terminology for what you may hear in the industry called 5G, the fifth generation of wireless technologies. Previously, as you might be aware, we've had the 3G, which we called IMT 2000, 4G, which was called IMT Advanced, and now we're working towards the 5G, and that's the term we've given it. And really, when you look at what it encompasses, is we're talking about how to take the connectivity of anywhere, anytime, any place that we have today and significantly build on top of that and expand it to do the things with a level of communication capability that gives a higher reliability, a higher performance level to the end users, does it with network economies of scale and improvements in efficiency and effectiveness, and to do it not just for people communications, but to add in that dimension that we have with the internet of things, which is where we have these millions or billions of devices that begin to be interconnected to do things on our behalf, your smart refrigerators and other things like that. And then I guess maybe there's one more dimension that's come in, which is the networks we're building today and as we move into 5G are also being expected to perform as communication tools for like emergency services. So that's what we call mission critical application. So it's a very wide ranging approach toward 5G building on where we are. So why the name IMT 2020? Is there anything special about the name? Well, yes and no. The interesting thing about IMT 2020 is I really look at it as a concept, but there is a sense there toward the fact that this stepping off point of the new availability of 5G will start to come into commercial service sometime right after 2020. So there is that aspect, but I think more importantly, we're talking about a horizon in the communication systems and in mobile broadband. It's a new way of looking at how we define and build these networks. We've had 20 years since 3G and we've learned a lot. There's a technology advancement, there's the capability and the underlying way we build the networks as a better appreciation for the applications and the uses and so forth. So it's really kind of stepping out with a clean slate approach, which is the reason I say it's a horizon into the new next generations. Could you tell us something about the Working Party 5G itself? How did it go about developing the standards or recommendations that 4M to 20, which represents the new vision for 5G mobile systems? It's an excellent question. Well, you know, to touch on a bit of history, the ITU has always been involved in ITUR, particularly in developing and fostering wireless and radio communications. I mean, we're coming up to the 150th anniversary of the ITU, so you can certainly see they've been there for a long time. And to do it with a global perspective. In particular, in the ITUR, as we've said, IMT is what we call this branch of mobile broadband we're developing. And in particularly in our Working Party, we deal in the terrestrial component. And the range of things that we cover involves not just the technology, but operational aspects, system aspects, the natural resource of the spectrum and the spectrum bands and those sort of things. And we do this with a series of meetings among the membership of ITU. But just as importantly, we have fostered some very strong working relationships outside the ITU with the industry stakeholders, the technology developers, the operators, the manufacturers, and so forth. And it's with that partnership, we're able to very effectively deliver results that are actually real, meaningful, implementable. So it's a very rich community we have here of doing this work, which leads us to some very good successes. How long have you been working on 5G or IMT 2020? We really sort of started it almost right after we were finishing up some of the IMT advanced work, which was in 2012. Maybe even a little bit before that, because quite frankly, one of the things that I look at in what we do here in the ITUR and in particular Working Party 5D is to serve as a think tank and a strategy view of the future. In essence, getting out from where we are and looking much further down the road. And just as an example, in 2011 even, we went around the world with various workshops and the theme of the workshop was IMT for the next decade. And the whole point of doing that was to stimulate the thinking on it. And the outgrowth from that thinking over the last several years have been a number of research projects around the world to look at technology and what it can do. And that's flowed back into us. And in particular, in the last couple of years, we've done a lot of the foundational deliverable work. One of those is the vision document, which sort of is the critical nucleus of where we think this all needs to go. So what is the vision for 5G? What's in it for us? The vision for 5G is quite interesting because it's also quite complex. On one hand it's simple, on the other it's complex. And the reason I say that is we all know what the mobile systems do for us today. And we're going to expect that to continue and do it better. And that's part of 5G. But coupled with that are the things I mentioned such as the internet of things, billions of devices that are a different type of communication, long battery life, wake up and talk just a little bit, versus the high end multimedia, the ultra HD televisions and these immersive experiences that may be coming along. And then you've got other dimensions associated with how do you do that within the existing constraints of technology, laws of physics and those sort of things. So you wind up with a situation where you're in tension. You're trying to solve simultaneously all these problems that have somewhat conflicting requirements in use cases, but do it with a cohesive view of the technology on an integrated system so that when you step outside of that as the user it's invisible. That's the challenge. So that's the vision. When will you get to the reality? When will a lot happen? We're aiming as the industry is toward having what we need in place, the specifications, the early equipment to look at commercial deployment shortly after 2020. To do that, we've had to set in place a process. We've got very well-defined processes in our working with us in the industry, set in place a process to, for example, over the next two years detailed, defining the detailed technical specifications we need in order for that technology to be built, to write the standards for it so it'll interoperate no matter where you go globally in the world. The follow on after that is to evaluate the results of that work as it's being built and simulated, et cetera. And then finally to wrap it together in a package in the specification deliverables that documents it all on paper. And then, of course, going along with that is, is all the discussions we have to do with the spectrum to support that, which is a very critical role that we have as well as for the industry. Stephen, I can tell this is your favorite subject. So do you have any personal observations on this? I think maybe as a couple of points is the fact that there's a uniqueness here in ITUR. It is the conjunction of the industry and the governmental activities, the regulators and the others in the government working together to produce these documents and deliverables and these visions and views. And that's a very unique thing. And it results in a very strong global ecology, shall we say, for broadband mobile, 5G and IMT. And we know what does that do for us? What does it really bring to the world to do that? In many cases, broadband, mobile broadband is the sole communications mechanism. It's your communications, entertainment, information source. In many countries, it's becoming the inroad for the individuals in those countries to become connected to the rest of the world in a way they never had before. And that brings great advantages to that. And then I guess maybe one last point is the fact that when you wrap all of this together and say what does it also do, it really impacts the economies and the jobs around the world in any of these countries. So I think that's the other messages for mobile broadband. Stephen Blast, we look forward to the 5G future. Thank you very much. We're pleased to work on it. Thank you, Sanjay.